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
and
using the maximum likelihood technique. In addition, secondary
anisotropies due to the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect are
described.
![]() |
The Cosmic Microwave Background
Aled W. Jones and Anthony N. Lasenby http://www.livingreviews.org/lrr-1998-11 © Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. ISSN 1433-8351 Problems/Comments to livrev@aei-potsdam.mpg.de |