Asymmetry of the PLANCK antenna beam shape and its manifestation in the CMB data

Abstract

We present a new method to extract the beam shape incorporated in the pixelized map of CMB experiments. This method is based on the interplay of the amplitudes and phases of the signal and instrumental noise. By adding controlled white noise onto the map, the phases are perturbed in such a way that the beam shape manifests itself through the mean-squared value of the difference between original and perturbed phases. This method is useful in extracting preliminary antenna beam shape without time-consuming spherical harmonic computations.