No Arabic abstract
We report on the cosmological parameters derived from observations with the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI), covering 40 square degrees and the multipole range 300 < l < 3500. The angular scales probed by the CBI correspond to structures which cover the mass range from 10^14 to 10^17 M_sun, and the observations reveal, for the first time, the seeds that gave rise to clusters of galaxies. These unique, high-resolution observations also show damping in the power spectrum to l ~ 2000, which we interpret as due to the finite width of the photon-baryon decoupling region and the viscosity operating at decoupling. Because the observations extend to much higher l the CBI results provide information complementary to that probed by the Boomerang, DASI, Maxima, and VSA experiments. As the observations are pushed to higher multipoles no anomalies relative to standard models appear, and extremely good consistency is found between the cosmological parameters derived for the CBI observations over the range 610 < l < 2000 and observations at lower l [abridged].
We use a frequentist statistical approach to set confidence intervals on the values of cosmological parameters using the MAXIMA-1 and COBE measurements of the angular power spectrum of the cosmic microwave background. We define a $Delta chi^{2}$ statistic, simulate the measurements of MAXIMA-1 and COBE, determine the probability distribution of the statistic, and use it and the data to set confidence intervals on several cosmological parameters. We compare the frequentist confidence intervals to Bayesian credible regions. The frequentist and Bayesian approaches give best estimates for the parameters that agree within 15%, and confidence interval-widths that agree within 30%. The results also suggest that a frequentist analysis gives slightly broader confidence intervals than a Bayesian analysis. The frequentist analysis gives values of Omega=0.89{+0.26atop -0.19}, Omega_{rm B}h^2=0.026{+0.020atop -0.011} and n=1.02{+0.31atop -0.10}, and the Bayesian analysis gives values of Omega=0.98{+0.14atop -0.19}, Omega_{rm B}h^2=0.0.029{+0.015atop-0.010}, and $n=1.18{+0.10atop -0.23}$, all at the 95% confidence level.
Recent results from BOOMERANG-98 and MAXIMA-1, taken together with COBE-DMR, provide consistent and high signal-to-noise measurements of the CMB power spectrum at spherical harmonic multipole bands over $2<elllta800$. Analysis of the combined data yields 68% (95%) confidence limits on the total density, $Omega_{rm {tot}}simeq 1.11 pm 0.07 (^{+0.13}_{-0.12})$, the baryon density, $Omega_b h^2simeq 0.032^{+0.005}_{-0.004} (^{+0.009}_{-0.008})$, and the scalar spectral tilt, $n_ssimeq1.01^{+0.09}_{-0.07} (^{+0.17}_{-0.14})$. These data are consistent with inflationary initial conditions for structure formation. Taken together with other cosmological observations, they imply the existence of both non-baryonic dark matter and dark energy in the universe.
Polarization observations of the cosmic microwave background with the Cosmic Background Imager from September 2002 to May 2004 provide a significant detection of the E-mode polarization and reveal an angular power spectrum of polarized emission showing peaks and valleys that are shifted in phase by half a cycle relative to those of the total intensity spectrum. This key agreement between the phase of the observed polarization spectrum and that predicted based on the total intensity spectrum provides support for the standard model of cosmology, in which dark matter and dark energy are the dominant constituents, the geometry is close to flat, and primordial density fluctuations are predominantly adiabatic with a matter power spectrum commensurate with inflationary cosmological models.
Two years of microwave background observations with the Cosmic Background Imager (CBI) have been combined to give a sensitive, high resolution angular power spectrum over the range 400 < l < 3500. This power spectrum has been referenced to a more accurate overall calibration derived from WMAP. The data cover 90 deg^2 including three pointings targeted for deep observations. The uncertainty on the l > 2000 power previously seen with the CBI is reduced. Under the assumption that any signal in excess of the primary anisotropy is due to a secondary Sunyaev-Zeldovich anisotropy in distant galaxy clusters we use CBI, ACBAR, and BIMA data to place a constraint on the present-day rms mass fluctuation sigma_8. We present the results of a cosmological parameter analysis on the l < 2000 primary anisotropy data which show significant improvements in the parameters as compared to WMAP alone, and we explore the role of the small-scale cosmic microwave background data in breaking parameter degeneracies.
The anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation contains information about the contents and history of the universe. We report new limits on cosmological parameters derived from the angular power spectrum measured in the first Antarctic flight of the BOOMERANG experiment. Within the framework of inflation-motivated adiabatic cold dark matter models, and using only weakly restrictive prior probabilites on the age of the universe and the Hubble expansion parameter $h$, we find that the curvature is consistent with flat and that the primordial fluctuation spectrum is consistent with scale invariant, in agreement with the basic inflation paradigm. We find that the data prefer a baryon density $Omega_b h^2$ above, though similar to, the estimates from light element abundances and big bang nucleosynthesis. When combined with large scale structure observations, the BOOMERANG data provide clear detections of both dark matter and dark energy contributions to the total energy density $Omega_{rm {tot}}$, independent of data from high redshift supernovae.