We study the problem of searching for cosmic string signal patterns in the present high resolution and high sensitivity observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This article discusses a technique capable of recognizing Kaiser-Stebbins e
ffect signatures in total intensity anisotropy maps, and shows that the biggest factor that produces confusion is represented by the acoustic oscillation features of the scale comparable to the size of horizon at recombination. Simulations show that the distribution of null signals for pure Gaussian maps converges to a $chi^2$ distribution, with detectability threshold corresponding to a string induced step signal with an amplitude of about 100 $muK$ which corresponds to a limit of roughly $Gmu < 1.5times 10^{-6}$. We study the statistics of spurious detections caused by extra-Galactic and Galactic foregrounds. For diffuse Galactic foregrounds, which represents the dominant source of contamination, we derive sky masks outlining the available region of the sky where the Galactic confusion is sub-dominant, specializing our analysis to the case represented by the frequency coverage and nominal sensitivity and resolution of the Planck experiment.
We analyze WMAP 3 year data using the one-point distribution functions to probe the non-Gaussianity in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) Anisotropy data. Computer simulations are performed to determine the uncertainties of the results. We report
the non-Gaussianity parameter f_NL is constrained to 26<f_NL<82 for Q-band, 12<f_NL<67 for V-band, 7<f_NL<64 for W-band and 23<f_NL<75 for Q+V+W combined data at 95% confidence level (CL).
