Comparing and combining CMB datasets

Abstract

One of the best ways of spotting previously undetected systematic errors in CMB experiments is to compare two independent observations of the same region. We derive a set of tools for comparing and combining CMB data sets, applicable also in the common case where the two have different resolution or beam shape and therefore do not measure the same signal. We present a consistency test that is better than a chi-squared test at detecting systematic errors. We show how two maps of different angular resolution can be combined without smoothing the higher resolution down to the lower one, and generalize this to arbitrary beam configurations. We also show how lossless foreground removal can be performed even for foreground models involving scale dependence, latitude dependence and spectral index variations in combination.