Big Bang Leftovers in the Microwave: Cosmology with the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

Eric Gawiser

Published 2000-05-17Version 1

We combine detections of anisotropy in the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation with observations of inhomogeneity in the large-scale distribution of galaxies to test the predictions of models of cosmological structure formation. This combination probes spatial scales varying by three orders of magnitude, including a significant region where the two types of data overlap. We examine Cold Dark Matter models with adiabatic density perturbations, isocurvature models, and a topological defects model. We set upper limits on the neutrino mass and find the primordial power spectrum needed to reconcile an apparent disagreement between structure formation observations and direct observations of cosmological parameters. Present and future observations of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy suffer from foreground contamination. We develop detailed predictions for microwave emission from radio and infrared-bright galaxies and the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect from clusters. We present realistic simulations of the microwave sky, produced as part of the `WOMBAT Challenge' exercise, and introduce a pixel-space method for subtracting foreground contamination which can be tested on these simulations.