The effect of galactic contamination on the largest scales in cosmic background radiation maps

Abstract

Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background is impaired by other astrophysical sources that also radiate in the microwave spectrum. These other, non-CMB sources are known as foregrounds. In this thesis, three different methods are applied to Monte Carlo simulations in an attempt to subtract galactic foreground signals from skymaps in order to get a clear view of the underlying CMB.

Study of data from the WMAP-satellite have revealed certain anomalies from the expected Gaussian distribution of CMB anisotropies, one of these is the apparant alignment of the quadru- and octopole. We investigate whether this could be caused by foreground contamination of the CMB signal, or some issue with the foreground-removal techniques.