A Precise Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Temperature at 2.64 Millimeters.
Abstract
High signal-to-noise, high resolution (R ~ 150,000-170,000) optical spectra of interstellar CN toward zeta Oph and zeta Per are presented. The column densities of the level populations are directly determined from the convolution of our instrument response function with our model which is then fit to the data. Toward both zeta Oph and zeta Per an excitation temperature of T_{ex } = 2.79 +/- 0.03 K is obtained. Adopting the collisional excitation corrections determined by Meyer and Jura (1985) results in T CMBR = 2.73 +/- 0.05 K toward zeta Oph and TCMBR = 2.75 +/- 0.04 K toward zeta Per. This result is consistent with neighboring measurements, including COBE, involving different techniques and consequently different systematic errors.
- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- January 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990PhDT........71K
- Keywords:
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- Physics: Astronomy and Astrophysics