MAXIPOL: Data Analysis and Results

We present results from and the analysis of data from MAXIPOL, aballoon-borne experiment designed to measure the polarization in the CosmicMicrowave Background (CMB). MAXIPOL is the first CMB experiment to obtainresults using a rotating half-wave plate as a rapid polarization modulator. Wereport results from observations of a sky area of 8 deg^2 with 10-arcminresolution, providing information up to l~700. We use a maximum-likelihoodmethod to estimate maps of the Q and U Stokes parameters from the demodulatedtime streams, and then both Bayesian and frequentist approaches to compute theEE, EB, and BB power spectra. Detailed formalisms of the analyses are given. Avariety of tests show no evidence for systematic errors. The Bayesian analysisgives weak evidence for an EE signal. The EE power is 55^{+51}_{-45} \mu K^2 atthe 68% confidence level for l=151-693. Its likelihood function is asymmetricand skewed positive such that with a uniform prior the probability of apositive EE power is 96%. The powers of EB and BB signals at the 68% confidencelevel are 18^{+27}_{-34} \mu K^2 and -31^{+31}_{-19} \mu K^2 respectively andthus consistent with zero. The upper limit of the BB-mode at the 95% confidencelevel is 9.5 \mu K. Results from the frequentist approach are in agreementwithin statistical errors. These results are consistent with the currentconcordance LCDM model.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables; ApJ publishe