PR10 : Cosmic Microwave Background - From the

frequency map to cosmological parameters.

-Final ReportAubert Marie, Sharma Nouri
Master Space 2015

Contents
1 Introduction

2 Origin of the CMB : History of the discovery.

2.1 First Prediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 First measurement and interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Observations and Instrumentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3
3
4
5

3 Calculation of the temperature of the universe at the time of the CMB

4 Anisotropies of the CMB

11

5 Data Analysis : Extracting the CMB from Planck

5.1 Components of the frequency map . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Extracting the CMB Map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Qualification of the CMB map . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4 Trying to compute the power spectrum . . . . . .

frequency map.
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . .

.
.
.
.

13
13
14
17
20

6 Conclusion

22

7 References

24

Introduction

Thanks to astronomical observations we found that stars visible during the night dwells
10 to 100 light years away and the nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is at 2.3 million light
years away. Thus, the Cosmic Microwave Background which was emitted 13.7 billion
years ago, only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, long before stars or
galaxies ever existed is the oldest signal emitted by photons in the universe.
Indeed, when matter started forming in the plasma that composed the early universe,
the photons, that were trapped up until that point, were released from the ionized gas.
They then travelled to space and time carrying with them a snapshot of the early universe
which led to a further understanding of the universe as we know it.
Although uniform at a large scale, the radiation presents fluctuations in its signal
that correspond to variation of the temperature, and so, density in the early universe.
Thus, by studying the detailed physical properties of the radiation, we can learn more
about the universe and its creation since the radiation we see today has traveled over
such a large distance. The information provided by the CMB allows us to determine the
conditions of the universe at very early times and to understand the repartition of large
scale objects like galaxies.
Through this report we are going to present you how the CMB was theorized then affirmed by empirical observations and measurements, then explain what are the anisotropies
and why they are important and, finally, present you our own extraction of the CMB
anisotropies map and its power spectrum.

Figure 1: The photons are released and travel through space (Credits : NASA/Planck

Origin of the CMB : History of the discovery.

2.1

First Prediction

The cosmic microwave background was first predicted in 1948 by Ralph Alpher and
Robert Herman, students of Gamow. They actually predicted some logical key points
decisive in the discovery of the CMB, some of them were later proved wrong.
In 1946:
The early universe was matter dominated;
Just after the Big Bang, the universe was in non-equilibrium stage;
All elements were produced in a hot early universe.

In 1948:
The concept of matter dominated universe dropped down and they considered early
universe as radiation dominated.
The temperature at that time was supposed to be T0 = 109 K as the building up
process was supposed to start from deuteron and this temperature corresponds to
dissociation energy of deuterium nuclei.
Deuterium formed at t 100 s.
vtn 1, where n is the number of neutrons, v is the thermal velocilty of the
neutrons v = 5 108 cm s1 , t is the rate of expansion of the universe, is the
cross-section of the neutron. Meaning that at t = 100s, the universe volume spread
is 1 meter cube.
Galaxy formation cannot start until matter domination, along with this they considered matter density equal to radiation density at the time of the recombination.
With all these assumptions they derived some important key points for cosmology from
the previous hypothesis :
The neutron density per cm cube ;
3

The density of matter at T0 : matt = 106 g cm3 , matt t 2 ;

The radius of early galaxies to be formed after big-bang.

Those assumptions permitted Gamow to calculate the temperature of the universe at

the time of the decoupling. He found a value of T = 103 K . This value is very important
for cosmology because, as the CMB radiation is a blackbody, it allowed the scientist to
have an idea of the magnitude of the CMB radiation at our epoch.
At this time the astronomical community was wary of cosmology as it wasnt fully
considered as a part of physics due to the lack of empiric results but Alpher, Herman
and Gamows prediction was rediscovered by Yakov Zeldovich in the early 1960s, and
independently predicted by Robert Dicke at the same time.

2.2

First measurement and interpretation

Figure 2: Above figures the horn antenna with which Penzias and Wilson received the CMB.
(Credit: NASA)

Dicke and his colleagues reasoned that the Big Bang must have scattered not only the
matter that condensed into galaxies but also must have released a tremendous blast of
radiation. And this radiation should be calculable with very sensitive instrument. They
calculated wavelength of the radiation (at T0 = 103 K) and assigned some key points for
their observations:
This radiation should be isotropic ;
Due to an important redshift, it should be detectable in the microwave region of
the Electromagnetic spectrum.
At the same time in 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were experimenting with
a 6 meter horn antenna originally built to detect radio waves. While reducing their data,
they removed all noises but were surprised to find an anomaly unpredicted in their theoretical model : a signal at 3,5 K measured at 4080 Mc/s (MHz). They were very clear
4

that this signal was coming from all direction in space and independent of season and
unpolarized. They were adamant that the unknown sound was not coming from galaxies
or other celestial source and were at loss to explain this phenomenon until Penzias and
Wilson contacted Dicke (and al.) who predicted the possible existence of a radiation relic
of the early universe.
Dicke and al. provided the interpretation to Penzias and Wilson measurement because
the signal being isotropic and detectable in the microwave region (around the 102 m of
wavelength) fit their prediction. They assumed that this signal was that of a black body
spectrum around 3.5 K 1 K.

2.3

Observations and Instrumentation

In order to obtain a more precise measurement of this black body and its temperature,
it was necessary to go out of the atmosphere, into space, to get rid of the atmospheric
perturbations that altered the signal. The satellite COBE equipped with the FIRAS
and DMR instrumentations was developed and launched into space in 1989. The data
obtained by COBE provided confirmation of the CMB being a black-body spectrum and
a more precise measurement of the temperature of the black body : 2,726 0,03K.
The satellite provided some maps of the CMB and the DMR allowed the discovery of
anisotropies in the signal in the range of tens of K. These anisotropies being fluctuations
of the temperature at the time of decoupling.

Figure 3: COBE satellite

Some years later, the WMAP was sent to space to collect more information about
the anisotropies found in the CMB. Measuring the CMB at five different frequency from
23 to 94 GHz, it provided a map of the pattern of the fluctuations in the signal which
allowed to precise the previous calculations, among others, about densities of baryonic
5

and dark matter in the universe and the age of the universe.

Figure 4: WMAP satellite

The last satellite sent into space to realize a measurement of the CMB was Planck in
order to continue the work started by WMAP and have a better look at the anisotropies
thanks to a more sensitive equipment and a wider range of frequency (27 GHz to 1 THz).
The data collected by Planck allowed to study in depth the deviation of the observation
from the theory of the cosmological model, the anisotropies of the signal being more
detailed.

Figure 5: Planck satellite

The discovery and measurement of these anisotropies in the early universe were essential to the development of astrophysics allowing for example to give some information
on how the first galaxies actually created or confirm the theory of how our universe came
to be : the hot Big Bang and CDM model.
6

Calculation of the temperature of the universe at

the time of the CMB

Figure 6: In this part, we will determine the temperature at the time of the CMB, which will
allow us to also approximate the time scale of the early universe

In this part, we will attempt to reproduce the reasoning of Gamow (1948) in which he
gives an estimation of the temperature of the universe at the time of the decoupling. In
order to do that, we must first set the assumption that the temperature of the universe
T0 at t = 102 s is T0 = 109 K and that the universe expands.
Since the expansion of the universe is adiabatic, we have:
P V 1+ = C
with the adiabatic constant.
1

T =

V
In the early universe, V is like the expansion of the universe, we can thus say :
1
a1
V
According to Friedmanns equation we have :
T

d
8 G T 4 1
(ln a) = (
)2
dt
3c2
where G = 6,673 84 1011 m3 kg1 s2 being the gravitational constant and
= 5,670 373 108 W m2 K4 is the Stefans constant.

By doing partial differentiation we obtain :

d
8 G T 4 1
dT

(ln T ) = (
)2
dt
dT
3c2

dT
1
T 2 8 G 1
=
(
)2
dt
T
c
3
Integrating the previous equation,

Z
dT
1 8 G 1
(
) 2 dt
=
3
T
c
3

t 8 G 1
T 2
= (
)2
2
c
3

T 2 =

t
8 G 1
2(
)2
c
3

1
3
c
)2
T2 = (
t 32 G
Knowing that the pressure of the molecules inside a closed container is :

P =

1 nM 2
c
3 V

1
P = c2
3
P c2
According to Stefans law :
P = T 4
Thus we can find the density for the radiation :
c2 T 4
rad
rad
rad
rad

T 4
c2

3
c2

c2 32G t2

3
c2

c2 32G t2
3

t2
32G

rad t2
rad a4
We are now going to find the density for the matter, the equation of the adiabatic
expansion of the universe is the following :
d
d
(a3 c2 ) + P (a3 ) = 0
dt
dt
For the limiting case of cold matter, the pressure goes like this :
P  c2
The adiabatic expansion of universe becomes :
d
(a3 c2 ) = 0
dt
So, after integrating we have :
matt a3 c2 = C
with C as a constant.
And consequently :
matt

1
a3

We are now able to calcule the temperature at the time of the decoupling. Using the
assumption that rad = matt at that time, we get :
a 3
)
a0
a
= 0rad ( )4
a0

matt = 0matt (
rad

0rad
a
=( )
0
matt
a0
0rad
T0
T
= ( )+1 = ( )1
0
matt
T
T0
T =

0rad
T0
0matt

With the following value, given in Gamows paper, at the time of decoupling : T0 = 109
K ; matt = 106 g cm1 ; rad = 1 g cm1 , we can calculate T :

T = 103 K
Knowing T, we can now calculate the age of the universe corresponding to this temperature knowing that T0 corresponds to t0 = 100s
1
T
t

T
t0
=
T0
t

T0
t = t0
T
t = t0

T02
T2

t = 1014 s
We can now try to calculate the temperature of the present universe with t =
13.7109 yrs :
T = 15.2 K
We can see that the value obtained by Gamow is just one order of magnitude higher
than the actual value. We can conclude that this approximation is good enough but to
have a more precise value, maybe one of the hypothesis put forward in the calculation
must be refined.

10

Anisotropies of the CMB

The discovery of small fluctuations in the black body CMB came as a surprise. Those
anisotropies were temperature fluctuations frozen at the decoupling. Indeed, before the
decoupling, the universe was made of a plasma of different particles (baryons, electrons,
protons, dark matter) distributed between overdense and underdense area. Photons
were trapped in the plasma. At the decoupling, the plasma is gradually replaced by
neutral gas leading the photons to be released and as a result of Compton scattering, the
nucleosynthesis process starts and matter is created. This matter is known as Baryonic
matter.
In the overdense area, the ionized gas clouds oscillated between contractions (hot and
dense) and dilatation (less hot and less dense). Indeed plasma had its own gravitational
field , this attracted matter towards it, the heat of photon-matter interactions created
a large amount of outward pressure. These counteracting forces of gravity and pressure
create oscillations analogous to sound waves (created by pressure difference). These
oscillations, which are periodic fluctuations in the density of the baryonic matter of the
universe, are known as baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO).

Figure 7: Photons in plasma pushes matter inside the potential well and matter pushes back,
creating oscillations (Credits : Wayne Hu)

They illustrate temperature fluctuations as a peak of temperature when plasma contracts and a dip of temperature when it dilates. The ionized clouds, being of different
sizes and oscillating at different rythms, create the different acoustic peaks noticed in the
data analysis of the mission WMAP.

11

Figure 8: Power spectrum of the CMB (Credits: APC univ-Paris

Those are peaks and dips corresponding to the maximum contraction and dilatation
respectively. These several stages of contraction and dilatation were frozen in the signal
at the time of the decoupling, when photons separated from matter, which released the
CMB.
The anisotropies provide a large number of information about the behaviour of matter
at that time and its evolution because they indicate the different densities in the plasma.
For example, it seems that the densest areas of the universe are the areas were the first
stars or galaxies clusters were born because of gravitation between the different lumps of
matter. It is the starting point of the cosmology we know today, indeed, the fact that the
density fluctuations were adiabatic assured the physicist/cosmologist that the universe
was itself adiabatic and that the theoretical model that described the early universe was
an inflation of a primeval firebal : the Hot Big Bang.
The power spectrum of the CMB also confirmed the presence of Cold Dark Matter
(CDM) and Dark Energy () and allowed the physicists to determine the values of the
six cosmological parameters needed to describe our universe among them : the physical
baryon density, the physical dark matter density, the age of the universe etc. and deduced
the cosmic expansion rate.

12

Data Analysis : Extracting the CMB from Planck

frequency map.

5.1

Components of the frequency map

When reading the map, we can see that they contain much more than the CMB signal.
Indeed, a frequency map is composed of the radiation of the CMB but also other radiations
coming from galaxies and matter disseminated in the universe. Those emissions, which
are concentrated on the galactic plane of the map, are the foreground components of the
CMB. They are composed of the free-free emission, the synchrotron emission and the
interstellar dust emission.
Free free interaction : The free-free emission comes from the scattering of free electrons off ions (when electrons collide with ions and are redirected) in interstellar
plasma when electrons collide with ions, and the electrons remain free after the
collision. Therefore they are free before and after the interaction with the ions.
Synchrotron : The synchrotron emission comes from interaction between electrons and
the magnetic fields in the galaxy. Indeed, the electrons that are parts of the cosmic
rays are accelerated by the magnetic fiels, resulting in the emission of this signal.
It is generally emitted at low frequency.
Interstellar dust : The interstellar dust is the dust created by dying stars. It is found
in all the universe inside or outside of the galaxies. With gravitation, the dust grains
gather in clouds. The dust in the clouds heats emitting a blackbody radiation that
becomes more important on the frequency maps as the frequency grows.

Figure 9: Foreground components : Antenna temperature vs frequencies, (Credits: Bennet et

al.)

13

As we can see on the figure 9, each kind of emission is more or less present at a certain
frequency. That is to say that the intensity of the emission depends on the frequency.
This behavior allowed us to select the frequency map used in the determination of our
CMB maps because they all hold a different relevance. Indeed, as we settled on only four
maps, we had to select the one were the CMB was more present and were the foreground
was dominated by one kind of emission. That is why we chose the maps from 100 GHz,
where the brightness temperature of the CMB is more important than the foreground,
to 353 GHz where the map is mainly dominated by the dust emission.

5.2

Extracting the CMB Map.

To extract the CMB Map, we used four different maps retrieved from the Planck Legacy
Archive. Each map is a full-sky frequency map obtained with the mission Planck and has
a certain angular resolution. We used the 100, 143, 217 and 353 GHz maps which have
an angular resolution of 9.68, 7.3, 5.02, 4.94 arcmin respectively.
The maps are all in a KCM B units, because as the CMB is a blackbody we can convert the measurement made by Planck into a brightness temperature and in this case, a
brightness temperature obtained through the derivative of the blackbody of the CMB at
T = 2.73 K. This brightness temperature of a blackbody is the same at all wavelength
and thus frequencies which means that the signal of the CMB is the same in our four
maps and thus that the anisotropies of the CMB are the same in the four maps.
Before extracting the CMB signal from the maps, we had to prepare the map so that
the treatment is more convenient. Indeed, the maps retrieved from the Planck Legacy
Archive were to big and contained to many values, which would have made the manipulation through Python quite long and difficult with our computers. The maps comes in
a Fits file that requires the Healpy module in order to be manipulated in Python. Each
map is an array of values - brightness temperature - associated to a point of the sky.
The maps are all in galactic coordinates with an initial pixel resolution (NSIDE) of 2048.
As they all have a different angular resolution, the CMB can not be retrieved directly.
Therefore the angular resolution had to be changed. We converted the higher angular
resolution into the lowest angular resolution : the maps were smoothed to the lowest
resolution : 9.68 arcmin. This smoothing was done by doing a gaussian convolution of

pi
rad
the map with a full width half maximum (fwhm) of : F W HM = 9.682 2 18060
with the angular resolution of the other maps.
We then changed the NSIDE of all the maps to 128 and obtained four maps of equal
angular resolution and NSIDE which allowed us to treat the data more efficiently.

14

Figure 10: Above is the 143 GHz frequency after preparation, we can distinctly see the
foreground contamination in red.

Once this preliminary work done, the maps are ready to be combined to extract the
CMB map. As the maps are in KCM B units, we know that the signal of the CMB is the
same in all of the maps. The only variation is then the noise created by the foreground
components and by the instrument. Indeed, when we display the map, we can see that
the CMB signal is masked by the intensity of the emitted by the foreground components,
essentially the dust. So, if we remove the noise coming from the foreground and we sum
the maps, we obtain the map of the anisotropies of the CMB.
In order to remove the noise, we did an Internal Linear Combination. By supposing
that there are k CMB map observed at different frequency, we can describe each of the
map as follows :
k
k
k
k
Tmap
= TCM
B (p) + Tf oreground (p) + Tnoise (p)

The TCM B map in each map is independent of the foreground and the noise of the
instrument because it is not dependent on the frequency. This allows us to write the
linear combination :
T =

4
X

wi T (i )

i=1

and, if we set the condition that

4
X

wi = 1

i=1

15

We obtain a map that can be described as :

T = TCM B +

4
X

wi Tnoise (i )

i=1

Finally, to extract the CMB map it appears that this linear combination has to be
completed by the minimization of the noise of each map in order to compute the weights.
Thus, the variance of the map is minimized through the Lagrange Multipliers method.
The expression of the weights wi is the solution of the system ;
Cij1
1
ij=1 Cij

P4

wi = P4j=1

with Ci,j the map-to-map covariance matrix.

Each weights actually reflects the intensity of the noise contained in the corresponding
map. We can see that the 100 GHz map will have a weight closer to 1 than the 353 GHz
that is dominated by thermal dust for example.
Before doing the ILC, we removed the influence of the galactic plane and its high intensity. Indeed, we created a mask removing the highest values of brightness temperature
(> 0, 006) that we knew hold no relevance in extracting the CMB signal. This allowed
us to obtain more precise values of the weights and thus, to diminish the uncertainties.
We then applied the resulting weights to their corresponding maps and we obtained
a map of the CMB.

Figure 11: Above is a final result of the ILC with a map of the CMB radiation. We can see
that it is not perfect because there is remnants of the foreground contamination. It was
computed with a mask of 0.006

16

Figure 12: Here is a map of the CMB with a mask of 0.006 hiding the galactic plane

Before doing the ILC, we removed the influence of the galactic plane and its high intensity. Indeed, we created a mask removing the highest values of brightness temperature
(> 0, 006) that we knew hold no relevance in extracting the CMB signal (see Fig.12) .
This allowed us to obtain more precise values of the weights and thus, to diminish the
uncertainties.

5.3

Qualification of the CMB map

After obtaining a CMB map, we have to qualify it. Indeed, even though we obtain a map
we are not sure if this map is truly representative of the CMB. There is two factors on
which we have influence that could modify the map given :
The value used to make a mask : To suppress the galactic plane, we use a value
of brightness temperature that we know is above the value of the anisotropies from
the map the most contaminated by the dust, in our case, the 353 GHz map. But,
this mask still remain arbitrary and depending cover a more or less important part
of the map.
The Nside can be changed when we convolve the map but it should not have a
direct incidence on the values of the weights used to compute the CMB map.
From this, we can deduce that, to obtain a map which qualifies as a CMB map we
have to compare the weights in regard to the value used for the masking of the maps.
The second point tells us that the weights should not vary too much from one NSIDE to
another, the contrary would then tell us that the map obtained doesnt qualify or that
we have a problem with the computing of the map.

17

Finally, we thought that studying the correlation between our map and a CMB map
obtained by the Planck mission, the map obtained by the SMICA method, could help us
in the qualification of our map.
We computed the weights for the CMB map for three different NSIDE, 128, 512 and
1024 with different masks, that is to say that we remove the values higher than the mask
value.
(a) The weights of the maps are computed with different masks for a fixed NSIDE.
NSIDE

Mask

128

0.008
0.007
0.006
0.005

Weights (from the 100 GHz map to the 353 GHz map
1.5291357811618715
2.4327618135712679
3.243135295179957
3.6959853540788905

0.28526562139520928 -0.88784468715324827 0.073443284596170444

-0.11678523350479744 -1.4612788860017343 0.14530230593526497
-0.56074275106708138 -1.8830920635240622 0.2006995194112027
-0.97890300779567652 -1.9309916757022143 0.21390932941899835

(b) The weights of the map computed with a 0.008 mask for three different NSIDE.
NSIDE

Mask

Weights (from W1 to W4)

1024
512
128

0.008
0.008
0.008

2.0481065142136066 -0.093985541006738629 -1.0523127422500691 0.098191769043206797

2.097041584039042 -0.095550982995337277 -1.105780162767914
0.10428956172420759
1.5291357811618715 0.28526562139520928
-0.88784468715324827 0.073443284596170444

Table 1: Weights computation result :

In the Table 1 above, the panel 2a, we displayed the weights computed with the ILC
while using a certain mask value. The results below 0.005 do not figure because they
tend to remove some information, contained on the lowest frequency maps, regarding the
CMB in addition to the foreground. The values obtained vary when we change the mask.
It would seem that the best set of weights to use would be the one obtained with the
0.008 Mask because the value of the weight associated to the 100 GHz is the closest to
1 and the dustiest map, at 353 GHz, has the lowest weight value. The panel 2b displays
the weights for a set mask of 0.008 for each NSIDE. The weights are quite close for the
maps of NSIDE 512 and 1024 but we notice a bigger difference (of about 0.5) between
the weights of the maps with a NSIDE 128 compared to the other weights. This could
be explained by the loss of information due to the lowering of the pixel resolution of the
maps.
In order to determine if the mask at 0.008 is the best one to get a CMB map, we
decided to compute the correlation between our map and the Planck map with a different
value of the mask each time.

18

Nside

Mask

Corrcoeff

p-value

slope

512

0.008
0.007
0.006
0.005

0.9537487797770
0.9465600954880
0.9445335421450
0.9431692737980

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0

0.9519285397910
0.9547390136800
0.9563616544780
0.9599847324270

Table 3: Correlation and slope between Planck map and our map with a NSIDE of 512 for
different mask values

The Table 3 shows that the CMB map masked with a value of 0.008 has a better
correlation coefficient compared to the other mask. However its slope is lower. This table
applies to the NSIDE 512 but, for any value of NSIDE, the correlation coefficient for the
0.008 mask is the highest.

If we take a look at the Figure 14, the reason for this difference between the slope and
the correlation is clear : an estranged point around 0.006 is
lowering the slope. But, we can
actually see that the points are
more concentrated toward the
slope for in the graph of the
CMB vs Planck CMB for the
mask 0.008 than for 0.007.

Figure 13: CMB map vs Planck map

for masks 0.007 and 0.008 with a NSIDE
of 512

19

To conclude, after the analysis of the weight computed. We can affirm that the best
weights to apply to the maps are the one computed with a mask of 0.008. This allow us
to present a map that we can call CMB map :

Figure 14: Even though it doesnt look like the perfect map like the Planck mission, we
found a good approximate.

5.4

Trying to compute the power spectrum

Once we obtain what qualifies as a good CMB map, we can attempt to plot its power
spectrum. We use our CMB map at a NSIDE of 1024 and masked at 0.008 in order to
plot its power spectrum. Before plotting the power spectrum, two thing must be taken
into account :
The temperature brightness temperature weredistributed on the map according to
a certain pixel window function.
Our CMB map was obtained by smoothed value in order to create a map of
F W HW = 9.68 arcmin.
The two precedent points have an incidence on the data contained in the map. Indeed,
if we want to obtain the real power spectrum of the CMB, that is to say, the observed
power spectrum of the anisotropies we have to remove the pixel window function and the
gaussian beam :
Clmeas = Clobs wl2
but also :
"

Cl

meas

= Cl

obs

1
(l)2
exp 2
2
2
20

Figure 15: Pixel window function and gaussian beam

According to Figure 15, the pixel window function is dominant before the gaussian
beam. This means that we can settle on only removing the effect of the pixel window
function from the power spectrum of the measured CMB.

Figure 16: Power spectrum of the CMB

After the removal of the pixel window function we obtain the observed power spectrum according to our map. In the Figure 16, we can clearly see the first peak of the
acoustic oscillation even though its a wider value. But, this was to be expected because
the power spectrum was computed with the galactic plane.

21

(a) Power spectrum of the masked CMB

(b) Power spectrum of the SMICA map

Figure 17: Power spectrums of the CMB maps

In Figure 17a, keeping the mask on and thus the values of the map that really pertains to the CMB has the direct effect of shaping the acoustic peak. If we compare
with the power spectrum obtain through the SMICA map Figure 17b , we can see that
they have the same form. The correlation coefficient between these power spectrum is
0.676063318642 with a p-value proportional to 10201 , so we can surely say that the
similarities between the two power spectrum are not a coincidence.

22

Conclusion

The anisotropies of the CMB are a rich mine of information concerning the universe.
Indeed, they can provide information on the density matter, both baryonic and dark,
and on the dark energy which was a huge discovery at that time because it confirmed
the CDM Hot Big Bang as a good theoretical model of the universe. The mystery
of the universe structure can also be investigated through the anisotropies, that is to say,
the densest area of the anisotropy map can be related to the different clusters be they
globular or galactic.
Though these anisotropies are very important, we have to treat the data provided by
different satellite to obtain a good representation of what they look like. Indeed, at each
frequency the satellite measure a temperature for each coordinate of the sky. These data
are then converted to the KCM B unit in order to have a uniform CMB in each of the
frequency maps and thus to compare the maps. The CMB is then extracted from the
maps by removing the highest values of the brightness temperature, which corresponds to
the galactic plan and then doing an Internal Linear Combination with the determination
of the weights using the Lagrange Multipliers. Once the weights are applied and if we
keep the mask on, we obtain a representation of the CMB. While that in itself is really
interesting because we can already see the comportment of the anisotropies through the
colors variation, it would not allow us to deduce the different cosmological parameters.
This is why we then compute the power spectrum from which the parameters are deduced. Our CMB map not being a perfect map, we were just able to display the acoustic
peak of the CMB.
The project allowed us to reproduce the analytical work of an astrophysician from
the collection of the data to the nearly final result which is the computation of the power
spectrum (and in normal circumstances the cosmological parameters). We were able
to try our hands on extracting a CMB map and its power spectrum but also to finally
understand why the CMB is a really important signal to the physicist. Though we focused
on the acoustic peaks because it is the only noticeable feature on our computed power
spectrum, we can now look forward to the next analysis of the anisotropies which will
consist in the analysis of a more precise measure of the polarization of the photons which
will maybe unravel more information on the early universe and present universe.

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References

1. W. Hu, CMB Introduction, http://background.uchicago.edu/whu/beginners/

introduction.html.
2. T. D. E. Survey, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, https://www.darkenergysurvey.
org/science/bao.shtml.
3. Wikipedia, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, https : / / en . wikipedia . org / wiki /
baryon_acoustic_oscillations.
4. Wikipedia, Cosmic microwave background, https : / / en . wikipedia . org / wiki /
cosmic_microwave_background.
5. apc.univ paris7.fr, Le Fond Diffus Cosmologique (CMB), http://www.apc.univparis7.fr/APC_CS/content/le-fond-diffus-cosmologique-cmb.
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142, 414419 (1965).
12. A. A. Penzias, R. W. Wilson, The Astrophysical Journal 142, 419421 (1965).
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14. G. Gamow, Physical Review 74, 505 (1948).
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University Press, 2010).

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