An Upper Limit On The Contribution Of Galactic Free-Free Emission To The Cosmic Microwave Background Near The North Celestial Pole

Authors

John E. Gaustad, Swarthmore College
P. R. McCullough
D. VanBuren

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-1996

Published In

Publications Of The Astronomical Society Of The Pacific

Abstract

We have observed the region of the sky north of 81 degrees declination with a wide-angle CCD camera and narrow-band (1 nn) H alpha filter. After subtracting the stellar background using off-band images and smoothing to 0.1 degrees resolution, we set an upper limit on the anisotropy in the H alpha emission at this angular scale of 1.3 Rayleigh. At degree angular scales, the upper limit is 0.5 R, which corresponds to an anisotropy in the brightness temperature of the free-free emission at 32 GHz of 3 mu K. Thus no more than 7% of the 44 mu K anisotropy observed by Netterfield et al. (ApJ, 331, 341, 1995) can be due to free-free emission by Galactic hydrogen.

Comments

This work is freely available courtesy of the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System.

Recommended Citation

John E. Gaustad, P. R. McCullough, and D. VanBuren. (1996). "An Upper Limit On The Contribution Of Galactic Free-Free Emission To The Cosmic Microwave Background Near The North Celestial Pole". Publications Of The Astronomical Society Of The Pacific. Volume 108, Issue 722. 351-355. DOI: 10.1086/133729
https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-physics/209