Maps of the Cosmos: The Cosmic Microwave Background

Abstract

Since the IAU XXIV meeting in 2000, the CMB anisotropy has matured from being one of a number of cosmological probes to forming the bedrock foundation for what is now the standard model of cosmology. The large advances over the past three years have come from making better and better maps of the cosmos. We review the state of measurements of the anisotropy and outline some of what we have learned since 2000. The recent advancements may be placed roughly into three categories: 1) What we learn from the CMB with minimal input from other cosmic measurements such as the Hubble constant; 2) What we learn from the CMB in combination with other probes of large scale structure; and 3) What we learn by using the CMB as a back light. Future directions are also discussed. It is clear: we have much more to learn from the CMB anisotropy.

15 pgs, 6 figures, Proceedings from IAU 2003, M. Colless ed

References in corpus (15)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Preliminary Maps and Basic Results
• Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Implications for Inflation
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) First Year Observations: TE Polarization
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Parameter Estimation Methodology
• CMB Lensing Reconstruction on the Full Sky
• High Resolution Observations of the CMB Power Spectrum with ACBAR
• A correlation of the cosmic microwave sky with large scale structure
• Detection of the ISW and SZ effects from the CMB-Galaxy correlation
• Measuring and Understanding the Universe
• Joint CMB and Weak Lensing Analysis; Physically Motivated Constraints on Cosmological Parameters
• Improved Measurement of the Angular Power Spectrum of Temperature Anisotropy in the CMB from Two New Analyses of BOOMERANG Observations
• The CMB power spectrum out to l=1400 measured by the VSA
• Cosmic microwave background snapshots: pre-WMAP and post-WMAP