Directionality in the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe polarization data |
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| Authors: | D Hanson Douglas Scott Emory F Bunn |
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| Institution: | Department of Physics &Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada;Department of Physics, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, USA |
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| Abstract: | Polarization is the next frontier of cosmic microwave background analysis, but its signal is dominated over much of the sky by foregrounds which must be carefully removed. To determine the efficacy of this cleaning, it is necessary to have sensitive tests for residual foreground contamination in polarization sky maps. The dominant Galactic foregrounds introduce a large-scale anisotropy on to the sky, so it makes sense to use a statistic sensitive to overall directionality for this purpose. Here, we adapt the rapidly computable  statistic of Bunn and Scott to polarization data, and demonstrate its utility as a foreground monitor by applying it to the low-resolution Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 3-yr sky maps. With a thorough simulation of the maps' noise properties, we find no evidence for contamination in the foreground cleaned sky maps. |
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| Keywords: | methods: numerical cosmic microwave background cosmology: observations cosmology: theory large-scale structure of Universe |
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