Open AccessDirect reconstruction of spherical harmonics from interferometer observations of the cosmic microwave background polarization
Author(s) -
Kim Jaiseung
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11285.x
Subject(s) - physics , cosmic microwave background , spherical harmonics , interferometry , polarization (electrochemistry) , formalism (music) , harmonics , spherical model , microwave , linear polarization , computational physics , optics , anisotropy , quantum mechanics , art , musical , laser , chemistry , voltage , visual arts
Interferometric observation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization can be expressed as a linear sum of spherical harmonic coefficients a ±2, lm of the CMB polarization. The linear weight for a ±2, lm depends on the observational configuration such as antenna pointing, baseline orientation and spherical harmonic number l , m . Since an interferometer is sensitive over a finite range of multipoles, a ±2, lm in the range can be determined by fitting a ±2, lm for visibilities of various observational configurations. The formalism presented in this paper enables the determination of a ±2, lm directly from spherical harmonic spaces without spherical harmonic transformation of pixellized maps. The result of its application to a simulated observation is presented with the formalism.