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arXiv · 0907.4011

Zonal Modes of Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Maps

Jo Short·Peter Coles
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Abstract

All-sky maps of the cosmic microwave background temperature fluctuations are usually represented by a spherical harmonic decomposition involving modes labelled by their degree l and order m (where -l < m < +l). The zonal modes (i.e those with m = 0) are of particular interest because they vary only with galactic latitude; any anomalous behaviour in them might therefore be an indication of erroneous foreground substraction. We perform a simple statistical analysis of the modes with low l for sky maps derived via different cleaning procedures from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and show that the zonal modes provide a useful diagnostic of possible systematics.

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Jo Short, Peter Coles. 2010-04-12. Zonal Modes of Cosmic Microwave Background Temperature Maps. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15833.x

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