CMB Cosmological Parameter Estimation: Methods and Current Results
M. Douspis, J.G. Bartlett, A. Blanchard & M. Le Dour
Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, 31400 TOULOUSE
Abstract:
The majority of present efforts to constrain cosmological
parameters with cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy data
employ approximate likelihood functions, the time consuming
nature of a complete analysis being a major obstacle.
We have performed a full (unapproximated)
likelihood analysis on several experiments that allows us to
examine the various assumptions made in these approximate
methods and to evaluate their performance. Our results indicate that
care should be taken when using such approaches. With an improved
approximate method, we present some constraints on cosmological parameters
using the entire present CMB data set.