Microwave Anisotropies in the Light of COBE

Abstract

The recent COBE measurement of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and the recent South Pole experiment of Gaier {\it et al.} offer an excellent opportunity to probe cosmological theories. We test a class of theories in which the Universe today is flat and matter dominated, and primordial perturbations are adiabatic parameterized by an index $n$. In this class of theories the predicted signal in the South Pole experiment depends not only on $n$, but also on the Hubble constant and the baryon density. For $n=1$ a large region of this parameter space is ruled out, but there is still a window open which satisfies constraints coming from COBE, measurements of the age of the Universe, the South Pole experiment, and big bang nucleosynthesis. Using the central values of the Hubble constant and baryon density favored by nucleosynthesis and age measurements, we find that, even if the COBE normalization drops by $1σ$, $n > 1.2$ is ruled out.