1 Introduction

The Cosmic Microwave Background

A.W. Jones and A.N. Lasenby
Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cavendish Laboratory,
Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OHE, UK

(Accepted 29 September 1998)

Abstract

We present a brief review of current theory and observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). New predictions for cosmological defect theories and an overview of the inflationary theory are discussed. Recent results from various observations of the anisotropies of the microwave background are described and a summary of the proposed experiments is presented. A new analysis technique based on Bayesian statistics that can be used to reconstruct the underlying sky fluctuations is summarised. Current CMB data is used to set some preliminary constraints on the values of fundamental cosmological parameters tex2html_wrap_inline1501 and tex2html_wrap_inline1503 using the maximum likelihood technique. In addition, secondary anisotropies due to the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect are described.



1 Introduction

image The Cosmic Microwave Background
Aled W. Jones and Anthony N. Lasenby
http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1998-11
© Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351
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