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# First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Foreground Emission

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)1 mission was designed to make precise, accurate, and reliable measurements of the microwave sky to allow the extraction of cosmological information from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation (Bennett et al., 2003). Use of the CMB for cosmology is limited, however, by microwave foreground contamination from our Milky Way Galaxy and from extragalactic sources.

The separation of the CMB and foreground signal components fundamentally relies on their differing spectral and spatial distributions. To facilitate the separation of signal components, WMAP was designed to map the full sky at five widely separated frequencies, from 23 GHz to 94 GHz (see Table 1). A similar approach was taken by the COBE mission (Bennett et al., 1992), although with only three frequency bands. While COBE resulted in a 6144 pixel map, the WMAP map has 3,145,728 sky pixels, with $`3.995\times 10^6`$ sr per pixel. The WMAP mission is described by Bennett et al. (2003), the optical design by Page et al. (2003b), the feed horns by Barnes et al. (2002), and the radiometers and their frequency coverage by Jarosik et al. (2003).

In this paper we follow the notation convention that flux density is $`S\nu ^\alpha `$ and antenna temperature is $`T\nu ^\beta `$, where the spectral indices are related by $`\beta =\alpha 2`$. In general, the CMB is expressed in terms of thermodynamic temperature, while Galactic and extragalactic foregrounds are expressed in antenna temperature. Thermodynamic temperature differences are given by $`\mathrm{\Delta }T=\mathrm{\Delta }T_A[(e^x1)^2/x^2e^x]`$, where $`x=h\nu /kT_0`$, $`h`$ is the Planck constant, $`\nu `$ is the frequency, $`k`$ is the Boltzmann constant, and $`T_0=2.725`$ K is the CMB temperature (Mather et al., 1999). A band-by-band tabulation of the conversion factor is given in Table 1.

Many sky regions are so strongly contaminated by foregrounds that a clean separation of the CMB is impossible, so in §2 we define a pixel mask to be used for CMB analyses. Microwave and other measurements show that, at high Galactic latitudes ($`\left|b\right|>15^{}`$), CMB anisotropy dominates the Galactic signals in the frequency range $`30150`$ GHz (Tegmark et al., 2000; Tegmark & Efstathiou, 1996). This fact makes the use of the masks discussed in §2 attractive.

In §3 we address physical emission mechanisms that contribute to Galactic emission: synchrotron, free-free, thermal dust, and nonthermal (spinning or thermally fluctuating magnetic) dust emission. In §4 we demonstrate a method that combines the WMAP maps in such a way as to isolate the CMB. In §5 we separate the signals by emission type to better understand the foregrounds. Through a better understanding of the foregrounds we are able to demonstrate the degree of residual contamination for CMB analyses after masks are applied. We also improve our understanding of the astrophysics of the foreground emission. In §6 we prepare a set of maps for cosmological analysis: we apply the masks from §2 to remove the brightest regions of emission, and then remove residual foreground emission using the templates introduced in §3. In §7 we estimate the level of extragalactic point source contamination and provide a list of the strongest sources. In §8 we assess the degree to which the WMAP maps are affected by the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. We conclude in §9 by summarizing the major results of the paper.

## 2 FOREGROUND MASKS

The purpose of a foreground mask is to exclude map pixels that contain “too much” foreground signal from use in CMB analyses. Some pixels often need to be masked even after a foreground reduction technique has been applied to a map. What constitutes “too much” foreground signal depends on the particular analysis. It is therefore useful to have masks available with different flux cut-off levels. For example, these masks can be used to demonstrate (in)sensitivity of scientific results to the level of foreground sky cut.

The mask cut-off level is always a compromise between eliminating foregrounds and preserving maximal usable sky area in analyses. The majority of excluded sky area in any mask is the Galactic plane region. The mask has the same pixel format as the map, where each mask pixel indicates whether or not the corresponding map pixel is to be used in analyses.

A successful mask should exclude those broad sky areas that are dominated by foregrounds, while leaving unexpunged the sky areas dominated by the CMB. Further, a useful recipe should be based on an unbiased process. WMAP has adopted a small set of standard masks of varying severity but with a common recipe. All masks are based on the K-band map since the foreground contamination is most severe in this lowest frequency band. The histogram distribution of all the pixel brightnesses in this map is strongly asymmetric in favor of positive pixel values because of the foreground contamination, as seen in Figure 1.

We reflect the (relatively uncontaminated) left side of the observed histogram about the mode. This symmetrized distribution is subtracted from the observed distribution, leaving a remainder, which is interpreted as contamination. The remainder histogram defines cutoff brightnesses.

The cutoff is applied to a low-resolution version of the K-band map in order to avoid excluding an archipelago of isolated pixels. WMAP images are generally pixelized with a HEALPix111see http://www.eso.org/science/healpix/ $`N_{side}`$ parameter of 512, whereas the masks are generated at $`N_{side}=64`$. However, this procedure gives the mask a peculiar boundary inherited from the diamond-shaped pixels. Accordingly, the boundary is softened by filtering the mask, which consists of ones and zeros, with a Gaussian of $`2^{}`$ full-width at half-maximum (FWHM), and taking the 0.5 contour of the result as the new mask boundary.

As explained above, a range of cutoff levels is desirable. A convenient step size in cut-off temperature is derived from the sky histogram, shown in Figure 1, by using the root-mean-square (rms) half-width of this histogram for values less than the mode. A series of masks are made using multiples of these step sizes. A cut at the peak value of the remainder histogram is referred to as “p0”. The sky cut used in any analysis is described by a symbolic name. For example, the mask defined by the peak of the remainder histogram using the K-band map is “Kp0”. A mask with a temperature cut-off two steps smaller in temperature (more severe) is called “Km2”, where “m” means “minus” and (for a less severe cut) “p” means “plus”. Figure 2 shows selected masks based on the definitions in Figure 1. A separate set of masks based on bands other than K-band is not necessary since they correspond closely with specific K-band defined masks.

In addition to diffuse Galactic emission, point sources also contaminate the WMAP maps. We have constructed a point source source mask that includes: (1) all of the sources from Stickel et al. (1994) (which is the updated Kühr et al. (1981) 5 GHz 1 Jy compilation with attached optical source identifications); (2) sources with 22 GHz fluxes $`0.5`$ Jy from the Hirabayashi et al. (2000) comprehensive compilation of flat spectrum AGN; (3) Additional flat spectrum objects from Teräsranta et al. (2001); and (4) sources from the X-ray/radio blazar survey of Perlman et al. (1998) and Landt et al. (2001). The mask excludes a radius of $`0.6^{}`$ about each of almost 700 source positions. Table 2 gives the percentages of the sky that are cut by each of the analysis masks with and without masking point sources.

## 3 GALACTIC MICROWAVE EMISSION

We have two objectives. One is to fit and remove the foregrounds to derive CMB maps with well-specified levels of contamination. The second is to advance our understanding of the astrophysics of the foreground emission. In support of these two objectives, this section summarizes the astrophysical microwave emission mechanisms and relevant existing measurements.

### 3.1 Free-free emission

Free-free emission arises from electron-ion scattering. Free-free thermal emission has a $`T_A\nu ^\beta `$ high-frequency ($`\nu >10`$ GHz) spectrum, with $`\beta =2.15`$, and a low-frequency rise of $`T_A\nu ^2`$ due to optically thick self-absorption.

Radio astronomy provides no free-free emission map of the sky because free-free doesn’t dominate the sky at any radio frequency. High-resolution, large-scale, maps of H$`\alpha `$ (hydrogen n=3$``$2) emission (Dennison et al., 1998; Haffner et al., 2002; Reynolds et al., 2002; Gaustad et al., 2001) can serve as an approximate template for the free-free emission, except in regions of high interstellar dust optical depth, $`\tau >1`$, at the H$`\alpha `$ wavelength (about 16% of the sky). For $`\tau 1`$, the H$`\alpha `$ maps can be approximately corrected for the effects of extinction.

For $`T_e<550,000`$ K, the free-free volume emissivity is given by

$$ϵ_\omega d\omega =\frac{8n_en_iZ^2e^6}{3\pi \sqrt{2\pi }m^2c^3}\sqrt{\frac{m}{kT_e}}\mathrm{ln}\left[\left(\frac{2kT_e}{\psi m}\right)^{3/2}\frac{2m}{\psi Ze^2\omega }\right]d\omega $$
(1)
(Oster, 1961), where $`T_e`$ is the electron temperature, $`Ze`$ is the net charge of the ion, $`\psi =1.78`$ is from Euler’s constant, $`m`$ and $`e`$ are the mass and charge of the electron, $`\omega `$ is the angular frequency of emission, and $`n_e`$ and $`n_i`$ are the electron and ion volume densities. We take $`n_e=n_i`$ and, for $`T_e8000`$ K (see, e.g., Otte et al. (2002)), it is safe to approximate $`Z=1`$. We then use the definition of the emission measure, $`EM=n_e^2𝑑l`$, to get an expression for the WMAP free-free antenna temperature,

$$T_A^{WMAP}(\mu \mathrm{K})=1.44EM_{\mathrm{cm}^6\mathrm{pc}}\times \frac{[1+0.22\mathrm{ln}(T_e/8000\mathrm{K})0.14\mathrm{ln}(\nu /41\mathrm{GHz})]}{(\nu /41\mathrm{GHz})^2(T_e/8000\mathrm{K})^{1/2}}.$$
(2)
Values of $`T_A/EM`$ for the 5 WMAP bands are given in Table 1, assuming $`T_e=8000`$ K.

The free-free spectral index for WMAP frequencies,

$$\beta _{ff}^{WMAP}=2\frac{1}{10.48+1.5\mathrm{ln}(T_e/8000\mathrm{K})\mathrm{ln}\nu _{\mathrm{GHz}}}$$
(3)
does not extend to arbitrarily low frequency. In general, $`T_A=T_e(1e^{\tau _\nu })`$. At the WMAP frequencies $`T_A<<T_e`$, i.e. $`\tau _\nu ^{WMAP}<<1`$, so $`T_A^{WMAP}\tau _\nu T_e`$. Through this last relationship, we can use the WMAP measurement of $`T_A^{WMAP}`$ to infer $`\tau _\nu `$ and thus extend a predicted antenna temperature to low frequencies where $`\tau _\nu 1`$. This can be done, for example, when comparing the WMAP free-free measurements in the Galactic plane to the Haslam et al. (1981) 408 MHz observations. The procedure is only approximate, however, since $`T_e`$ and the beam filling factors for discrete sources are not accurately known.

The intensity of H$`\alpha `$ emission is given by

$$I(\mathrm{R})=0.44\xi EM_{\mathrm{cm}^6\mathrm{pc}}(T_e/8000\mathrm{K})^{0.5}\left[10.34\mathrm{ln}(T_e/8000\mathrm{K})\right],$$
(4)
where the H$`\alpha `$ intensity is in units of Rayleighs (1 R $`=2.42\times 10^7`$ ergs cm-2s-1 sr-1 at the H$`\alpha `$ wavelength of 0.6563 $`\mu `$m), the helium contribution is assumed to be small, and $`\xi `$ is an extinction-correction factor. If, for example, the emitting gas is co-extensive with dust, then $`\xi =[1\mathrm{exp}(\tau )]/\tau `$. H$`\alpha `$ is in R-band where the extinction is 0.75 times visible, $`A_R/A_V=0.75`$. Thus, $`A_R=2.35E_{BV}`$, so $`\tau =2.2E_{BV}`$.

Finkbeiner (2003) assembled a full sky H$`\alpha `$ map using data from several surveys: the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), the Virginia Tech Spectral-Line Survey (VTSS), and the Southern H-Alpha Sky Survey Atlas (SHASSA). This map, with the Schlegel et al. (1998) (hereafter referred to as SFD) extinction map of the sky, are used together to compute a best guess map of free-free emission in regions where $`\tau <1`$, under the assumption of co-extensive dust and ionized gas. The resulting template is shown in Figure 3(a).

We note that this template only approximates the free-free emission. There are several sources of uncertainty and error. For example: (a) H$`\alpha `$ light scatters from dust grains in a manner unlike free-free; (b) There is uncertainty in the calibration of the H$`\alpha `$ measurements, both within and between the observational groups; (c) There is some error in separating the geocoronal emission from the H$`\alpha `$ line emission; (d) Any inaccuracy in the assumed Balmer atomic rates will also introduce error; (e) The H$`\alpha `$ intensity depends on $`T_e`$, and it is not known precisely how $`T_e`$ changes across the Galaxy; (f) There is uncertainty in ionization state of helium; (g) Any gas that has a sufficient bulk velocity could emit outside the bandwidth of the H$`\alpha `$ observations; and (h) The extinction correction assumes that the H$`\alpha `$ emission is co-extensive with the dust along the line of sight.

It would be difficult to assess and propagate all of the above sources of error. A comparison with a WMAP free-free map will be discussed in §5.

### 3.2 Synchrotron Emission

Synchrotron emission arises from the acceleration of cosmic ray electrons in magnetic fields. The acceleration occurs in Type Ib and Type II supernova remnants. The same $`M>8\mathrm{M}_{}`$ stars that form these remnants also emit UV radiation that heats dust grains and ionizes hydrogen in the interstellar medium. Thus synchrotron emission is associated with the star-formation cycle.

The energy spectrum of cosmic ray electrons is expressed as a relativistic electron number density distribution $`N(E)E^\gamma `$. Since $`N(E)`$ varies across the galaxy, as does the magnetic field, $`𝐁`$, the resulting synchrotron emission can be characterized by a wide range of spectral behaviors, and hence the observed morphology of synchrotron sky maps will change substantially with frequency. The synchrotron flux density spectral index, $`\alpha `$, is related to the electron power law index, $`\gamma `$, by $`\alpha =(\gamma 1)/2`$ at frequencies greater than a few GHz, where self-absorption is negligible.

The synchrotron emission spectrum is further affected by cosmic ray propagation, energy loss, and degree of confinement. Cosmic ray electrons can propagate via diffusion and/or convection. Diffusion involves the random scattering of cosmic ray electrons from varying magnetic fields, while convection implies the systematic outward movement of the sources of scattering.

Cosmic rays lose energy via synchrotron loss, inverse Compton scattering, adiabatic loss, and free-free loss. Cosmic ray electrons may be largely confined to their host galaxies, or may freely leave their halos. Highly confined cosmic ray electrons lose their energy before they escape from the halo of the galaxy, while poorly confined electrons escape the galaxy before they lose a substantial portion of their energy. A steep spectral index (e.g., $`\alpha <0.9`$, $`\beta <2.9`$) indicates a high rate of energy loss and a low escape rate. A flatter spectral index (e.g., $`\alpha >0.7`$, $`\beta >2.7`$) indicates that electrons can escape their host galaxy before losing a significant fraction of their energy. This can imply strong convection.

Synchrotron emission can be categorized as arising from two types of sources: electrons trapped in the magnetic fields of discrete supernova remnants and diffuse emission from cosmic ray electrons spread throughout the Galaxy. In a discrete supernova the magnetic field (typically $`75\mu `$G) is enhanced because it is frozen into the shocked compressed gas. The diffuse magnetic field in the Galaxy is typically only $`15\mu `$G.

Discrete supernova remnants typically have a spectral index of $`\alpha 0.5`$ (i.e. $`\gamma 2`$) in the few GHz radio range (Green, 1988) (see also http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/surveys/snrs/snrs.info.html) and contribute only $`10\%`$ of the total synchrotron emission of the Galaxy at 1.5 GHz (Lisenfeld & Völk, 2000; Biermann, 1976; Ulvestad, 1982), despite the enhanced magnetic field strength. More than 90% of the observed synchrotron emission arises from a diffuse component with a direction-dependent spectral index that generally lies in the range $`0.5>\alpha >1.1`$ ($`2.5>\beta >3.1`$ and $`2.0<\gamma <3.2`$). The cosmic ray electrons in the Galaxy substantially outlive their original supernova remnants and slowly lose energy while traveling large distances across the Galaxy.

The nonthermal spectral index is seen to steepen off the disk in our Galaxy and the same effect is seen in external galaxies. The observed steepening implies that energy loss is important (Lisenfeld & Völk, 2000).

The low-frequency cut-off of synchrotron emission arises both from the single-electron synchrotron spectrum ($`F(x)=x_x^{\mathrm{}}K_{5/3}(\xi )𝑑\xi `$, where $`K_{5/3}`$ is the modified Bessel function) low-frequency cut-off, and from self-absorption and free-free absorption, both of which become increasingly efficient at lower frequencies. The rise in the low-frequency synchrotron spectrum in the optically thick regime goes as $`T_A\nu ^{2.5}`$. Synchrotron emission is also cut-off by the Razin-Tsytovich effect, which describes a strong suppression of the synchrotron radiation when the phase velocity of the light in the plasma is greater than $`c`$. The synchrotron cut-off occurs at frequencies below where the kinetic temperature is equal to the brightness temperature. This often occurs at a frequencies of a few MHz, but can also play a role in GHz-peaked sources.

Synchrotron emission can be highly polarized, with the degree of linear polarization as high as $`(3\gamma +3)/(3\gamma +7)`$, i.e. $`75\%`$ polarized. This is almost never observed, however, due to Faraday rotation ($`\lambda ^2`$) and non-uniform magnetic field directions along a line of sight, which generally reduce the degree of observed polarization to $`<20\%`$.

Figure 4(a) shows the radio emission mapped over the full sky with moderate sensitivity at 408 MHz by Haslam et al. (1981). This map is dominated by synchrotron emission. Low frequency ($`<10`$ GHz) spectral studies of the synchrotron emission indicate that $`\beta 2.7`$, although substantial variations from this mean occur across the sky (Reich & Reich, 1988; Lawson et al., 1987). Higher energy cosmic ray electrons lose their energy faster than lower energy electrons, so the synchrotron spectral index steepens with time. Sometimes a “break” is seen in synchrotron spectra, which is useful for determining the age of the source. At frequencies above the break the spectral index steepens to $`\alpha =(2\gamma +1)/3`$ due to synchrotron losses. This corresponds to an antenna temperature steepening of $`\mathrm{\Delta }\beta =0.5`$. Voelk (1989) predicts a break in the synchrotron spectrum of the Milky Way at 22 GHz, arising from a break in the relativistic electron spectrum at 20 GeV. Synchrotron steepening breaks with $`\mathrm{\Delta }\beta >0.5`$ have been observed in a few discrete sources (Green & Scheuer, 1992; Morsi & Reich, 1987), indicating additional processes beyond synchrotron losses.

Physical steepening effects compete against an observational measurement bias towards flat spectrum components. Steep spectral index synchrotron components seen at low radio frequencies become weak relative to flat spectral index components when observed at higher microwave frequencies. Thus it should be expected that flatter spectrum components will increasingly dominate in observations at higher microwave frequencies, even as all components may steepen.

The study of external galaxies can inform our picture of the Milky Way. For example, Hummel et al. (1991) present maps of the 610 MHz and 1.49 GHz emission from the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC891. They find that the synchrotron spectral index varies from $`\beta 2.6`$ in most of the galactic plane to $`\beta 3.1`$ in the halo. Thus, it is reasonable to expect similar spectral index variations in the Milky Way at $`1`$ GHz. As one maps any such galaxy at increasingly higher frequencies the overall appearance will change considerably, with the flatter $`\beta 2.6`$ plane emission increasingly dominating over the steeper spectral index halo.

In summary, the synchrotron signal is complex. A large range of spectral indices are both expected and observed. Thus, any synchrotron template map of the sky will be frequency-dependent. For many years CMB researchers have evaluated the synchrotron contamination level of their CMB data by examination of the Haslam-correlated amplitude scaled by $`\beta 2.75`$. Given the expected and observed spectral index variability, this not necessarily sound.

### 3.3 Thermal Dust Emission and its Radio Correlation

Thermal dust emission has been mapped over the full sky in several infrared bands, most notably by the COBE and IRAS missions. A full sky template is provided by Schlegel et al. (1998) (SFD), and is extrapolated in frequency by Finkbeiner et al. (1999), hereafter referred to as FDS. This is shown in Figure 5(a).

Measurements of the thermal dust spectral index generally lie in the range $`1.5\beta _d2`$. For WMAP wavelengths, the FDS extrapolation predicts $`\beta _d1.6`$. Schwartz (1982) showed that there is an inverse relationship between the dust temperature and its spectral index. More recently, Dupac et al. (2001, 2002) have observed this inverse relation, in detail, in sources observed with the PRONAOS (PROgramme NAtional d’Observations Submillimetriques) 2-m balloon telescope at effective wavelengths of 200, 260, 360 and 580 $`\mu `$m. For dust temperatures below 20 K, Dupac et al. (2002) observe values in the range $`1.6\beta _d2.5`$ in M17. These steep values have implications for the grain material. They suggest emission from silicate grains such as MgO$``$SiO2 with $`\beta _d2.5`$ at $`10`$ K (Agladze et al., 1996) or natural olivines such as fayalite (MgxFe1-xSiO4 with $`x=0.06`$) (Mennella et al., 1998).

A remarkably tight correlation exists between the far-infrared and synchrotron emission of galaxies. This relation has been extensively studied and modeled (Dickey & Salpeter, 1984; de Jong et al., 1985; Helou et al., 1985; Sanders & Mirabel, 1985; Gavazzi et al., 1986; Hummel, 1986; Wunderlich et al., 1987; Wunderlich & Klein, 1988; Beck & Golla, 1988; Fitt et al., 1988; Hummel et al., 1988; Mirabel & Sanders, 1988; Bicay et al., 1989; Devereux & Eales, 1989; Unger et al., 1989; Voelk, 1989; Chi & Wolfendale, 1990; Wunderlich & Klein, 1991; Condon, 1992; Bressan et al., 2002).

Bicay et al. (1989) comment that the synchrotron emission appears spatially smeared relative to the far-infrared distribution in galaxies. They suggest that this likely arises from the diffusion and/or convection of the cosmic ray electrons from their original site of star formation activity. If this is true, then one would expect higher frequency radio observations to become increasingly tightly correlated with the far-infrared distribution since the higher microwave frequencies preferentially sample the flatter spectrum, younger component.

Commenting on the synchrotron-dust correlation, Voelk (1989) predicts that, “…whether integral or local, the correlation should also become better for smaller wavelengths of observation. The reason is that a decreasing wavelength implies higher energies of the radiating electrons. These electrons lose energy faster and therefore are more localized around their sources.”

### 3.4 Spinning and Magnetic Dust Emission

In addition to the thermal emission from dust, above, there are various other ways in which dust can radiate at microwave wavelengths. These include electric dipole emission from spinning dust grains and magnetic dipole emission from thermally fluctuating dust grains (Erickson, 1957; Draine & Lazarian, 1999, 1998a, 1998b). Emission from spinning dust can produce $`\beta 2`$ from 20-40 GHz. The high-frequency cut-off of spinning dust emission is due to the limited speed at which a dust grain can spin.

All theories to explain the amazingly tight correlation between radio and far-infrared emission from galaxy to galaxy relate to the level of the star formation activity. The star formation cycle forms and destroys dust grains, heats the grains, creates magnetic fields and relativistic electrons, and creates the O- and B-stars that ionize the gas. The tight correlation persists down to very low radio frequencies, yet the radio emission can not be due to spinning dust gains since they do not radiate strongly at such long wavelengths. This suggests that radio/microwave emission and thermal dust emission are tightly correlated, not because of a common dust emission source, but rather as a result of the fact that both trace star-formation activity. While spinning dust emission is not a dominant source of $`1`$ GHz radio emission in the Galaxy, it may be significant at higher microwave frequencies ($`30`$ GHz).

Finkbeiner et al. (2002) searched for spinning dust emission in ten discrete Galactic sources at 5, 8, and 10 GHz. No detection was reported for 8 of the 10 sources, implying that spinning dust emission is not a ubiquitous and dominant emission mechanism in our Galaxy. Two of the ten sources were reported “tentative” detections. They caution that a solid detection would require observations of the predicted spectral roll off both at high and low frequencies.

It is reasonable to assume that the Milky Way should be like other spiral galaxies and, in particular, the microwave properties of external galaxies should help elucidate the global properties of the Milky Way. Klein & Emerson (1981) report the spectra of 16 spiral galaxies to frequencies up to 10.7 GHz. They find that the spectral index, averaged over the 16 galaxies, is well described by a single synchrotron power law spectral index of $`\beta =2.71\pm 0.08`$. Gioia et al. (1982) report that the mean spectrum of 56 bright spiral galaxies is dominated by synchrotron emission, with a small additional free-free emission component. They report that a free-free plus single power-law synchrotron fit fully explains their observations. Niklas et al. (1997) examine 74 Shapley-Ames galaxies and they also find their spectra dominated by a power-law synchrotron index with some free-free emission. These extragalactic studies report no suggestion of anomalous sources of emission. The main impediment to stronger statements about spinning dust emission in external galaxies is the (perhaps surprising) sparsity of microwave observations of normal galaxies at microwave frequencies greater than $`10`$ GHz.

## 4 INTERNAL LINEAR COMBINATION OF THE MULTIFREQUENCY WMAP MAPS

Linear combinations of the multi-frequency WMAP sky maps can be formed using constraints so that the response to Galactic signals is approximately canceled while maintaining unit response to the CMB. Linear combinations of multi-frequency data need not rely on assumptions about the foreground signal strengths of the various emission mechanisms. An advantage of this method is that it is “internal”, that is, it relies only on WMAP data, so the calibration and systematic errors of other experiments do not enter.

We create a CMB map by computing a weighted combination of the maps that have been band-averaged within each of the five WMAP frequency bands, all smoothed to $`1^{}`$ resolution. Weights can be determined by minimizing the variance of the measured temperatures subject to the constraint that the weights add to one, thus preserving unit response to the thermal CMB spectrum.

When the entire sky is treated with a single set of weights, imperfections are apparent due to the fact that the foreground properties (i.e., spectral indices) have significant spatial variation, especially within the inner Galactic plane. Thus, to improve the result, the inner Galactic plane is divided into 11 separate regions, within which weights are determined independently. All but one of the $`N=12`$ total regions are thus in the inner Galactic plane, within the Kp2 cut. The temperature (in CMB thermodynamic units) of each pixel, $`p`$, in each region $`n=1,2,\mathrm{}N`$ is

$$T_n(p)=\underset{i=1}{\overset{5}{}}\zeta _{n,i}T^i(p),$$
(5)
where the sum is over the five WMAP bands. The weights, $`\zeta `$, for each region are determined by carrying out a nonlinear search for the minimum of $`\mathrm{var}(T_n)`$ within each of the $`N`$ regions of the sky, subject to the constraint that

$$\underset{i=1}{\overset{5}{}}\zeta _i=1,$$
(6)
thus preserving only signals with a CMB spectrum. For the region that covers the full sky outside of the inner Galactic plane, the weights are $`\zeta =0.109,0.684,0.096,1.921,0.250`$ for K, Ka, Q, V, and W bands, respectively.

This process creates a map with slight discontinuities at the region boundaries since each region, $`R_n`$, is treated independently. To smooth these discontinuities, we create a set of $`N`$ maps, with weights $`w_n(p)=1`$ for $`pR_n`$ and $`w_n(p)=0`$ for all other $`p`$. We then smooth these $`N=12`$ maps of $`w_n(p)`$ (containing only ones and zeros) using a $`1\text{.}^{}5`$ smoothing kernel. The final map is then given by the weighted combination

$$T(p)=\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}w_n(p)T_n(p)/\underset{n=1}{\overset{N}{}}w_n(p),$$
(7)
which greatly reduces boundary effects. The resulting CMB map is shown in Figure 6(a).

## 5 MAXIMUM ENTROPY METHOD (MEM) SPATIAL AND SPECTRAL FIT

In §4 the objective was to cancel the Galactic signal, regardless of its nature. In this section we attempt to distinguish and understand the different emission sources. It is a coincidence of nature that there are three known emission mechanisms that are each capable of generating similar spectra in the microwave spectral regime. Free-free, synchrotron, and spinning dust emission can all have a spectral index of $`\beta 2`$ at the WMAP frequencies. The key to separating these is to use data from outside the microwave spectral regime.

Recent observations of H$`\alpha `$ emission over large regions of the sky can help trace free-free emission. This is especially useful in regions where the extinction of H$`\alpha `$ is small, largely at high Galactic latitudes. The 408 MHz radio map (Haslam et al., 1981) is at a sufficiently low frequency that spinning dust emission is negligible.

We formulate a model temperature solution at each frequency band and each pixel, $`p`$, as

$$T_m(\nu ,p)=S_{cmb}(\nu |p)T_{cmb}(p)+S_s(\nu |p)T_s(p)+S_{ff}(\nu |p)T_{ff}(p)+S_d(\nu |p)T_d(p)$$
(8)
where $`cmb,s,ff,`$ and $`d`$ represent the CMB, synchrotron (plus spinning dust), free-free, and thermal dust components, respectively. $`S_c(\nu |p)`$ is the spectrum of emission $`c`$ in pixel p, and is not necessarily uniform across the sky. $`T_c(p)`$ is the spatial distribution of emission type $`c`$, where synchrotron (plus spinning dust) and free-free are normalized to the WMAP K-band temperature, and thermal dust is normalized at W-band. The model is fit by minimizing the functional $`H(p)=A(p)+\lambda (p)B(p)`$ (Press et al., 1992), where $`\lambda `$ is a regularizing parameter, $`A(p)=\chi ^2(p)=_\nu [T(\nu ,p)T_m(\nu ,p)]^2/\sigma ^2`$ is a pixel by pixel fit, and $`B(p)=_cT_c(p)\mathrm{ln}[T_c(p)/P_c(p)]`$ sums only over Galactic emission components. $`P_c(p)`$ is a prior model of the spatial distribution of the temperature of emission component, $`c`$, normalized to the same frequency as $`T_c`$. The MEM parameter $`\lambda `$ controls the fidelity of the fit to the a priori model. The form of $`B`$ ensures the positivity of the Galactic emission $`T_c(p)`$, which greatly alleviates degeneracy between the foreground components. The formalism is unaware, for example, of the different physics of synchrotron versus spinning dust emission.

We begin by smoothing all maps to a uniform $`1^{}`$ resolution. Initially we subtract the internal combination CMB map derived in §4 from the five WMAP maps to remove this part from the fit. Since WMAP measures only differentially on the sky it does not determine a meaningful zero level for the maps. For each of the 5 maps, we use the mean observed temperature variations with Galactic latitude to estimate the zero level, assuming a plane-parallel model for the Galactic emission. This is done by adding an offset to each map such that a fit of the form $`T=A\mathrm{csc}b+B`$ over the range $`90^{}<b<15^{}`$ yields a value of zero for the intercept, $`B`$. For consistency we treat the 408 MHz map the same way. Figure 7 shows fits of this form for $`b<15^{}`$ and for $`b>15^{}`$. The results for the Southern sky are chosen because they minimize the number of negative pixel values in the 408 MHz map.

The prior spatial distribution maps, $`P_c(p)`$, are chosen as follows. For synchrotron emission we use the Haslam map scaled to K-band using $`\beta _s=2.9`$. For free-free, we use the full sky H$`\alpha `$ map produced by Finkbeiner, scaled to K-band antenna temperature using 11.4 $`\mu `$K R-1. The dust prior is taken to be “Model 8” of FDS, evaluated at 94 GHz. These priors are fixed, but we have evaluated the sensitivity of the output solution to the choice of prior and, as discussed below, have used the results to guide the choice of the regularizing parameter $`\lambda `$.

We construct initial spectral models, $`S_c(\nu |p)`$, as follows. From the 408 MHz map (Figure 4a) and the WMAP K-band map (Figure 4b) we construct the $`\beta (408\mathrm{MHz},\mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}23}\mathrm{GHz})`$ spectral index map in Figure 4c. This is largely a synchrotron spectral index map, but with some free-free and spinning dust contribution. Significant variations are seen in this spectral index across the sky. The initial model for $`S_s(\nu |p)`$ is $`(\nu /\nu _K)^{\beta (p)0.2}`$ where $`\beta (p)`$ is the above spectral index map. For the free-free and dust, we take the initial models to be $`S_{ff}(\nu )=(\nu /\nu _K)^{2.15}`$ and $`S_d(\nu )=(\nu /\nu _W)^{+2.2}`$ respectively. The latter choice for the dust model was informed by many previous trial models.

In general, for a given set of spectral models, the MEM solution has residual errors. Since the synchrotron and dust spectra are poorly known at microwave frequencies, we use the model residuals to guide an update of the synchrotron and dust spectral models, $`S_s`$ and $`S_d`$ in an iterative fashion. Specifically, after each minimization of $`H(p)`$, we update $`S_s`$ and $`S_d`$ as follows

$`T_sS_s(\nu |p)T_sS_s(\nu |p)+gR(\nu ,p)`$ $`\mathrm{K}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{bands}`$ (9)
$`T_dS_d(\nu |p)T_dS_d(\nu |p)+gR(\nu ,p)`$ $`\mathrm{W}\mathrm{band}`$ (10)
where $`R(\nu ,p)=T(\nu ,p)T_m(\nu ,p)`$ is the solution residual (data minus model), and $`g`$ is a gain factor ($`g1`$). Each spectral model is renormalized to 1 at its fiducial frequency prior to running a new minimization of $`H(p)`$. To stabilize the MEM computations at frequencies where individual components are weak, and thus poorly determined, we extend the synchrotron power law spectral index between Q-band and V-band to W-band. Likewise, we extend the dust index between W- and V-bands to Q-, Ka-, and K-bands. The extension is re-applied at every iterative step.

The regularizing parameter, $`\lambda `$, controls the degree to which the solution follows the prior. Note that $`\lambda (p)`$ can vary across the sky since the fits are performed independently for each pixel. Our philosophy is that the WMAP data should take priority over the priors in sky regions where the WMAP signal-to-noise ratio is high and that the priors should take priority where the WMAP signal-to-noise ratios are too low. After some trial-and-error, we arrive at a map of $`\lambda (p)`$ values that implement this, $`\lambda (p)=0.6(T/1\mathrm{mK})^{1.5}`$, where $`T`$ is the K-band antenna temperature in mK. This choice makes $`\lambda (p)`$ vary continuously between $`3`$ where the K-band signal is noisy and $`0.2`$ where the K-band signal is strong. The results are not strongly sensitive to the exact form of $`\lambda (p)`$. Similar results were obtained with $`\lambda =0.2`$ everywhere, but the results are noisy where the WMAP signal is weak. Using $`\lambda >3`$ everywhere produces results that are somewhat dependent on the priors, $`P`$, in regions of high signal-to-noise ratio.

We run the MEM code to minimize $`H`$. We typically iterate (residual errors fed back to improve the solutions) $`10`$ times with a feedback gain factor of $`g=0.5`$ per iteration to produce overall residuals $`<1`$%. The results of the MEM are shown in Figures 3, 5, and 8. Note that minimal residuals and reasonable results are achieved without the introduction of any unmodeled Galactic component. Figure 5 shows that there is a fairly close spatial correlation between synchrotron and thermal dust emission at microwave wavelengths. Figure 9 is a histogram of the synchrotron and/or spinning dust component. The spectral index looks very much like synchrotron emission with a 0.5 steepening of the index from synchrotron losses, as predicted by Voelk (1989) based on the observed break in the relativistic electron spectrum in the solar neighborhood.

To limit the fraction of the low frequency non-thermal component that can be attributed to spinning dust, we construct a spinning dust emission model whose spectrum is characterized by the Cold Neutral Medium spectrum of Draine & Lazarian (1998a), and whose spatial distribution is that of the MEM-derived thermal dust emission. The overall normalization of the model is a free parameter. For a given normalization factor, we subtract this map from the non-thermal component model maps at each of the five WMAP bands and at the Haslam frequency; the remainder is assumed to be a series of synchrotron maps. We compute the median values of $`\beta `$(408 MHz, K-band), $`\beta `$(K-band, Ka-band), and $`\beta `$(Ka-band, Q-band) for the residual maps and demand that the residual (synchrotron) spectral index be a monotonically decreasing function of frequency in the range 408 MHz to 41 GHz (Q band). The result is that the spinning dust fraction is less than about 5% of the total Ka-band emission. We conclude that any spinning dust emission component is subdominant. The thermal dust spectral index histogram, shown in Figure 9, indicates $`\beta _d2.2\pm 0.1`$.

The MEM method is a Bayesian approach to model fitting that incorporates prior knowledge of the Galactic model. The results are driven by a combination of the data and the priors. The CMB internal linear combination map is based on 5 numbers over the majority of the sky, therefore subtracting it from each band removes only a small fraction of a degree of freedom per pixel. Then we fit 7 parameters for free-free, synchrotron (+spinning dust), and thermal dust: 3 amplitudes, and 4 spectral indices (0 free-free, 3 synchrotron, 1 thermal dust). We fit these 7 parameters with 5 bands of data plus 3 amplitude priors (which incorporate positivity on each amplitude), for a total of 7 parameters with 8 independent constraints per pixel. The degree to which the prior information constrains the model is set by the regularizing parameter $`\lambda `$, thus one cannot count the number of degrees of freedom as in a pure $`\chi ^2`$ fit. A demonstration that there is sufficient power in the data to guide the fit is that the result is relatively insensitive to variations in the priors or the gain and that the results are physically reasonable.

We freeze the spectral models $`S_s`$, $`S_{ff}`$, and $`S_d`$ once small residuals are achieved, and the improvement in the residuals is not significant. We then introduce the CMB as a model component with a known spectral index, $`S_{cmb}(\nu |p)=dB/dT`$ for a Planck function $`B`$ with $`T_0=2.725`$ K, and iterate again to solve for a CMB map and modified component amplitude maps. The MEM-derived CMB map is shown in Figure 6b and a binned pixel-by-pixel comparison with the internal combination CMB map is shown in Figure 6c. It is not surprising that the MEM CMB map agrees well with the linear combination map since the foreground components were derived based on low residuals with respect to the subtracted linear combination CMB map. Yet, by giving the component amplitudes an opportunity to re-adjust with the CMB amplitudes as a new degree of freedom, it is a reassuring cross-check that the solutions are generally unaffected. Small ($`1`$%) errors seen in the Galactic plane of the MEM CMB map relative to the combination CMB map illustrate the residual uncertainty of the MEM solution.

Low residual solutions are highly constrained, but not necessarily unique or correct. Loosely speaking, the model must account for a considerable signal amplitude in K-band and very little total amplitude in V-band. This constrains the synchrotron spectral index to be steep. Likewise, the model must match the dust signal in W-band, but the dust spectral index must be steep enough to stay under the total signal level in V-band. The free-free level can be thought of as making up the remainder of the V-band signal after the synchrotron and dust have been fit. Any additional emission components are strongly disfavored due to the already low total V-band signal. Limitations in the precision and accuracy of the H$`\alpha `$ measurements, uncertainty in the degree of H$`\alpha `$ extinction, and the uncertainty in the conversion factor between H$`\alpha `$ and free-free, combine so as to not allow the free-free to be fixed with sufficient precision to achieve a uniquely “correct” MEM solution. Figure 3c shows a (bin-averaged) pixel-by-pixel comparison of the MEM free-free result with the H$`\alpha `$ prior. The slope is within $`\pm 12`$% (depending on the method of fit) of the expected value from §3.1 and Table 1, meaning that the model can not be far off what is physically reasonable.

The total observed Galactic emission matches the MEM model to $`<1`$% while emission is separated into the individual components with a few percent accuracy. An overview of the Galactic spectra and spatial power is shown in Figure 10. The total flux of our Galaxy ($`F_\nu =I_\nu (l,b)\mathrm{cos}l\mathrm{cos}bd\mathrm{\Omega }`$) in the five WMAP bands is 45, 38, 35, 32, and 48 kJy, from K-band to W-band. Thus, we present a “reasonable” model that conveys far more information about the microwave foregrounds than was previously known.

## 6 TEMPLATE FITS

While the MEM method, discussed above in §5, produces a CMB map, it is not straightforward to use that map for cosmological analyses since its noise properties are complicated. The MEM method is much more valuable for understanding the physical nature of the foregrounds than for producing a CMB map useful for CMB analysis.

To produce a CMB map useful for cosmological analyses (by maintaining well specified noise properties) we simultaneously fit (outside the Kp2 cut) a set of externally derived template maps to the WMAP maps. The template maps are the H$`\alpha `$ map (corrected for an estimate of extinction), the 408 MHz Haslam map, and the FDS 94 GHz dust map. The resulting coefficients are given in Table 3. A constant term is included in the fits.

The rising amplitude of the dust template fit coefficient with decreasing frequency has been interpreted by some as evidence of spinning dust emission. We have learned from the MEM solutions in §5, however, that the 408 MHz Haslam map is not a high-fidelity synchrotron template at the WMAP frequencies due to the strongly variable spectral index across the sky. This is reflected in the negative template coefficients in V- and W-bands. From the point of view of removing foreground emission for CMB analyses, we are not concerned about the degeneracy that exists between the strongly correlated dust and synchrotron emission components. We are only concerned with reducing the foreground level.

To further investigate past results on dust-correlated radio emission we fit the FDS thermal dust template to the total MEM Galactic model (synchrotron plus free-free plus thermal dust emission) for each WMAP band, using the Kp2 cut. We then compute the spectral index of the dust-correlated emission. We use the WMAP Ka and V bands to approximate the COBE DMR 31 GHz and 53 GHz bands. The result is $`\beta `$(31 GHz, 53 GHz) $`\beta `$(Ka, V)$`=2.2`$. This replicates the previous dust-correlated radio emission. Physically, the $`2.2`$ index is a combination of a $`\beta 3`$ synchrotron component that is correlated with thermal dust (because of star-formation activity) combined with the $`\beta =+2.2`$ thermal dust component. This combined index gets much steeper at lower frequencies (where the dust emission is weak) and is much flatter at higher frequencies where the synchrotron and free-free become weak relative to thermal dust emission.

An alternative fitting method is used in the current first-year WMAP CMB analyses to avoid negative coefficients for the synchrotron component, above. Only the Q-, V-, and W-band data are included. The dust component is fitted separately to each band (3 parameters). A single amplitude is used to fit the free-free emission across all three bands, assuming a spectral index $`\beta =2.15`$. Similarly, a single amplitude is used for the synchrotron emission, $`\beta =2.7`$. Thus, five parameters are used: dust amplitudes in the Q-, V-, and W-bands (1.036, 0.619, 0.873, respectively), a free-free amplitude (1.923), and a synchrotron amplitude (1.006). The units of the coefficients are the same as in Table 3, with the free-free and synchrotron amplitudes referred to Q-band.

Although this template method is not particularly physical, it does remove the Galactic foreground outside the Kp2 cut sufficiently for CMB analyses, as shown in Figure 11. We estimate the residual contamination in two ways. By examining deviations from a Gaussian distribution, we estimate that the template subtraction reduces the Galactic signal rms (after the sky cut) by 86% in Q-band, 81% in V-band, and 84% in W-band. This agrees well with a power spectrum estimate in the range $`2<l<100`$ before and after the template subtraction. We estimate that the Galactic contamination has gone from 32% of the CMB power to 2.2% of the power in Q-band, from 7.2% to 0.8% in V-band, and from 11% to $`<0.4`$% in W-band. See Hinshaw et al. (2003) for the power spectra before and after the template subtraction.

This method was adopted before the MEM solutions were available to allow the CMB work to proceed in parallel with the Galaxy work and thus to enable a timely release of data products to the scientific community. Future analyses will likely use a modified approach, but we caution that the MEM results cannot be applied directly to CMB analyses because of their complicated noise and signal correlations.

We conclude that template fits are a valuable method for reducing foreground contamination from CMB maps, but are a poor way to distinguish individual physical emission components due to their correlated morphological structures.

## 7 EXTRAGALACTIC SOURCES

In addition to the Galactic foregrounds, extragalactic point sources will contaminate the WMAP anisotropy data. Estimates of the level of point source contamination expected at the WMAP frequencies have been made based on extrapolations from measured counts at higher and lower frequencies (Park et al., 2002; Sokasian et al., 2001; Refregier et al., 2000; Toffolatti et al., 1998). Direct 15 GHz source count measurements by Taylor et al. (2001) indicate that these extrapolated source counts underestimate the true counts by a factor of two. This is because flatter spectrum synchrotron components increasingly dominate over steeper spectrum components with increasing frequency, as in the case of Galactic emission discussed above. Microwave/millimeter wave observations preferentially sample flat spectrum sources. Techniques that remove Galactic signal contamination, such as the ones described above, will also generally reduce extragalactic contamination. For both Galactic and extragalactic contamination, the most affected WMAP pixels should be masked and not used for cosmological purposes. After applying a point source and Galactic signal minimization technique and masking the most contaminated pixels, the residual contribution must be accounted for as a systematic error for CMB analyses.

We examine the point source content of the WMAP maps by constructing a catalog of sources surveyed at 4.85 GHz using the northern celestial hemisphere GB6 (Gregory et al., 1996) catalog and the southern hemisphere PMN catalog (Griffith et al., 1994, 1995; Wright et al., 1994, 1996). The GB6 catalog covers $`0^{}<\delta <+75^{}`$ to a flux limit of 18 mJy and the PMN catalog covers $`87^{}<\delta <+10^{}`$ to a flux limit between 20 and 72 mJy. Combined, these catalogs contain 119,619 sources, with 93,799 in the region $`|b|>10^{}`$. We examined the WMAP pixel location for each of these sources as a function of their 4.85 GHz flux density. We find that the detected sources are primarily flat-spectrum, with $`\alpha 0`$. We also considered the 15,411 IRAS objects in the infrared PSCz catalog (Saunders et al., 2000), but found no significant signal in the WMAP data. The detected sources tend to be radio galaxies and quasars, not normal galaxies, so the tight infrared-radio correlation of galaxies discussed in §3.3 is not relevant.

A catalog can be made of the brightest point sources in the WMAP maps, independent of their presence in external surveys. First, the temperature maps are weighted by the square-root of the number of observations, $`N_{obs}^{1/2}`$. The maps are then filtered by $`b_l/(b_l^2C_l^{\mathrm{cmb}}+C^{\mathrm{noise}})`$, (Tegmark & de Oliveira-Costa, 1998; Refregier et al., 2000), where $`b_l`$ is the transfer function of the WMAP beam pattern (Page et al., 2003a), $`C_l^{\mathrm{cmb}}`$ is the CMB angular power spectrum, and $`C^{\mathrm{noise}}`$ is the noise power. Peaks that are $`>5\sigma `$ in the filtered maps are fit to a Gaussian profile plus a baseline plane. This procedure results in 208 point source candidates, listed in Table 5. Once a source is identified with a $`>5\sigma `$ detection in any band, then flux densities are listed for other bands if they are $`>2\sigma `$.

We cross-correlated this catalog with the GB6, PMN, and Kühr catalogs, identifying sources if they are separated by less than $`11\mathrm{}`$ (the position uncertainty is $`4\mathrm{}`$). When more than one source lay within the cutoff radius the brightest one was chosen, and the source flagged. Of the 208 sources in the catalog, 203 sources have counterparts, 20 having more than one. Since the five without counterparts are all near the detection threshold, and simulations suggest that we should expect $`5\pm 4`$ false detections, these are likely spurious. Thus, there is no evidence for a population of bright microwave sources without known radio counterparts.

The sources observed at WMAP frequencies are predominately flat-spectrum (Figure 12), with an average spectral index of $`\alpha 0`$. Modeling the source count distribution $`dN/dS`$ as a power law $`\kappa (S/\mathrm{Jy})^\beta `$, we obtain the values presented in Table 4. We find the slopes to be nearly Euclidean, consistent with the Toffolatti et al. (1998) model (hereafter referred to as T98), which predicts a steepening in the spectrum at fluxes greater than 1 Jy (Figure 13). T98 appears to overpredict the number of point sources; to fit the Q-band data their model should be rescaled by $`0.66\pm 0.06`$. Independent empirical estimates of the source count at 90 GHz are a factor of two below the T98 prediction (Sokasian et al., 2001; Holdaway et al., 1994).

Given a model for the source count distribution, we can predict the level of residual contamination due to unresolved point sources. The contribution to the anisotropy for Poisson-distributed sources is an effective white-noise term

$$C^{\mathrm{src}}=g(\nu )^2_0^{S_c}𝑑S\frac{dN}{dS}S^2\mu \mathrm{K}^2\mathrm{sr}$$
(11)
where $`S_c`$ is the flux limit and $`g(\nu )=\left(c^2/2k\nu ^2\right)\left((e^x1)^2/x^2e^x\right)`$ converts flux density to thermodynamic temperature (with $`x`$ defined in §1). Note that point sources are constant in $`C^{\mathrm{src}}`$ and therefore have an $`l^2`$ dependence in $`l(l+1)C_l/2\pi `$. As the point source mask is an amalgam of incomplete catalogs it’s difficult to estimate $`S_c`$. Primarily constructed from a selection of sources greater than 1 Jy at 5 GHz and 0.5 Jy at 22 GHz, a “split-the-difference” estimate of 0.75 Jy seems reasonable. This value is also suggested by measurements of the bispectrum (Komatsu et al., 2003). Integrating the rescaled T98 model with $`S_c=0.75`$ gives us $`C^{\mathrm{src}}=35.4\pm 3.2g(\nu )^2\mathrm{Jy}^2\mathrm{sr}^1`$, or $`(15.0\pm 1.4)\times 10^3\mu \mathrm{K}^2\mathrm{sr}`$ for Q-band. Extrapolating, this implies nearly negligible contamination levels of $`3`$ and $`1\times 10^3\mu \mathrm{K}^2\mathrm{sr}`$ for V- and W-band.

## 8 SUNYAEV-ZELDOVICH (SZ) EFFECT

Hot gas in clusters of galaxies will contaminate the maps by shifting the spectrum of the primary anisotropy to create a Sunyaev-Zeldovich decrement in the WMAP frequency bands. This is, however, a small effect for WMAP.

The brightest SZ source is the Coma cluster, which is included in the point source mask described in §2. The Coma decrement observed by WMAP is $`0.34\pm 0.18`$ mK in W-band and $`0.24\pm 0.18`$ mK in V-band.

More generally, the XBACs catalog of 242 Abell-type clusters (Ebeling et al., 1996) is correlated with the WMAP W-band map. The XBACs clusters are treated as point sources for WMAP and the conversion to units of flux density is based on Refregier et al. (2000), using the relation

$$S_{94}=11.44\left(\frac{300\mathrm{Mpc}}{D(z)}\right)^2\left(\frac{f_{\mathrm{gas}}}{0.11}\right)\left(\frac{kT_e}{1\mathrm{keV}}\right)^{5/2}[\mathrm{mJy}]$$
(12)
where $`D(z)`$ is the angular diameter distance to the cluster, $`f_{\mathrm{gas}}M_{\mathrm{gas}}/M`$ is the gas mass fraction, and $`T_e`$ is the electron temperature. The overall normalization of this relation is uncertain due to ignorance of the correct gas fraction and cluster virialization state. We fix $`f_{\mathrm{gas}}=0.11`$. Extended clusters (more than one-third the extent of Coma) are omitted; the remaining fluxes are all $`<1`$ Jy. A template map is constructed by convolving the clusters with the WMAP beam (Page et al., 2003a), and then the template is fit to the WMAP W-band map. We find a template normalization of $`0.36\pm 0.14`$. Since the fluxes used to construct the template were positive, the negative scaling is consistent with observing the SZ effect at 2.5$`\sigma `$ using a matched filter (the X-ray catalog).

CMB photons that travel to us through the plane of our own Galaxy undergo an SZ distortion of $`ykn_eT_e\sigma _TL/m_ec^2`$, where $`\sigma _T`$ is the Thomson scattering cross-section and $`L`$ is the effective (electron pressure weighted) length of the path through our Galaxy. Taking $`n_eT_e=10^3`$ K cm-3 and $`L=50`$ kpc we get $`y2\times 10^8`$. Therefore our Galaxy does not significantly affect the CMB photons, even in the worst case. More generally, the SZ effect, as a contaminating foreground, can safely be ignored for WMAP data analyses.

## 9 CONCLUSIONS

1) We have defined and constructed a series of “standard” masks to use for CMB data analyses. The masks vary in degree of the severity of the sky cuts. These masks have been used in the companion WMAP papers that analyze the CMB anisotropy.

2) We present a CMB map formed from a weighted combination of the five WMAP bands designed to reduce foreground contamination. The method is effective, but care must be used in the use of this map given its complicated noise correlations.

3) We examine the fitting of foreground spatial template maps to the WMAP maps to remove foregrounds for CMB analyses. This method can work well as long a mask is applied to exclude the strongest regions of Galactic emission and as long as the fits are restricted in frequency. These restrictions are needed because the foreground tracers are not high fidelity tracers of the WMAP forgrounds. A frequency-restricted fit with a mask is used for the current “first year” WMAP results.

4) The relatively flat synchrotron spectral index ($`\beta 2.5`$) in the Galactic plane between 408 MHz and 23 GHz provides evidence for diffusion and convection of cosmic rays within the Galactic plane. The significant steepening of the synchrotron spectral index at high Galactic latitudes suggests that diffusion is the dominant process for cosmic ray electrons leaving the plane, and that these cosmic ray electrons are trapped in the halo for sufficient time to lose a significant amount of their energy.

5) We have made maps and derived spectral indices of the individual physical emission components using a Maximum Entropy Method.

6) The steep spectral index ($`\beta 3`$) high Galactic latitude features, seen prominantly in low frequency radio maps, become comparatively weaker than the flatter ($`\beta 2.5`$) synchrotron emission in the plane at the higher WMAP frequencies. The consequence of this is that the synchrotron sky map seen by WMAP is a much closer tracer of regions of recent star-formation than low radio frequency maps. This, in turn, implies that the spatial distribution of synchrotron emission at the WMAP frequencies is strongly correlated with that of other star-formation tracers, such as thermal dust emission. The synchrotron spectral index is steeper in the WMAP bands than at radio frequencies.

7) A synchrotron map of the sky is frequency dependent. It is inappropriate to assume that a synchrotron map measured at low frequencies (e.g., 408 MHz) should be a high-fidelity tracer of synchrotron emission at much higher frequencies.

8) The free-free map from WMAP is generally consistent with H$`\alpha `$ measurements that also trace the ionized gas.

9) The spectral index of the thermal dust emission is steep, $`\beta _d2.2`$ in the WMAP bands, possibly implying emission from cold silicate grains.

10) There is no frequency at which spinning or magnetic dust emission dominates in the WMAP data. Spinning dust emission is $`<5`$ % of the Ka-band antenna temperature.

11) The WMAP bands were chosen to be in a region of the spectrum where the ratio of the CMB to foreground contamination was at a maximum. Due to the steep synchrotron and dust spectra, the choice of WMAP frequencies was even more advantageous than expected.

12) The total flux of our Galaxy in the five WMAP bands is 45, 38, 35, 32, and 48 kJy, from K-band to W-band.

13) The Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect is a negligible “contaminant” for the current first year results, as expected.

14) A catalog of 208 point sources detected by WMAP is presented. Of these, five are likely to be spurious. The mean spectral index of the point sources is $`\alpha 0`$ ($`\beta 2`$). Derived source counts suggest a contribution to the anisotropy power of $`(15.0\pm 1.4)\times 10^3`$ $`\mu `$K2sr at Q-band and negligible levels at V-band and W-band.

The WMAP mission is made possible by the support of the Office of Space Sciences at NASA Headquarters and by the hard and capable work of scores of scientists, engineers, technicians, machinists, data analysts, budget analysts, managers, administrative staff, and reviewers. The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM), the Virginia Tech Spectral-Line Survey (VTSS), and the Southern H-Alpha Sky Survey Atlas (SHASSA), are funded by the National Science Foundation. We are grateful to D. Finkbeiner for making his combined H$`\alpha `$ map available to us in advance of publication.


text:
# Observation of 𝐵⁰→𝑝Λ̄𝜋⁻

Belle preprint 2003-2

on leave from \]Nova Gorica Polytechnic, Nova Gorica The Belle Collaboration

## Abstract

We report the first observation of the charmless hyperonic $`B`$ decay, $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$, using a 78 fb-1 data sample recorded on the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$ resonance with the Belle detector at KEKB. The measured branching fraction is $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{})=(3.97_{0.80}^{+1.00}\pm 0.56)\times 10^6`$. Searches for $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{}`$ and $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$ yield no significant signals and we set 90% confidence-level upper limits of $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{})<8.2\times 10^7`$ and $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{})<3.8\times 10^6`$.

The Belle collaboration recently reported the observation of $`B^+p\overline{p}K^+`$ ppk , which is the first known example of $`B`$ meson decay to charmless final states containing baryons. The three-body decay rate is larger than the rate for two-body decays (such as $`Bp\overline{p}`$ 2body ), and the observed $`M_{p\overline{p}}`$ spectrum peaks near threshold, in agreement with theoretical suggestions HS ; rhopn . In this Letter we report the first observation of the related three-body decay $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$, and a search for $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{}`$ and $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$ modes. The rate for $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$ is comparable to $`B^+p\overline{p}K^+`$, and the observed $`M_{p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$ spectrum again peaks toward threshold.

In the Standard Model, these decays proceed via $`bu`$ tree and $`bs(d)`$ penguin diagrams. They may be used to search for direct $`CP`$ violation and test our theoretical understanding of rare decay processes involving baryons HS ; rhopn ; PP ; CY ; CHT . Modes involving hyperons, in particular, can probe the $`s`$ quark chirality in $`B`$ decay suzuki ; with sufficient statistics, they could provide a tool for probing $`T`$ violation HS  via the self-analyzed $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ polarization information.

We use a 78 fb-1 data sample, consisting of $`85.0\pm 0.5`$ million $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs, collected by the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric energy $`e^+e^{}`$ (3.5 on 8 GeV) collider. The Belle detector is a large-solid-angle magnetic spectrometer that consists of a three-layer silicon vertex detector (SVD), a 50-layer central drift chamber (CDC), an array of aerogel threshold Čerenkov counters (ACC), a barrel-like arrangement of time-of-flight scintillation counters (TOF), and an electromagnetic calorimeter comprised of CsI(Tl) crystals located inside a super-conducting solenoid coil that provides a 1.5 T magnetic field. An iron flux-return located outside of the coil is instrumented to detect $`K_L^0`$ mesons and to identify muons. The detector is described in detail elsewhere Belle .

Since the $`e^+e^{}`$ center-of-mass energy is set to match the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$ resonance, which decays into a $`B\overline{B}`$ pair, one can use the following two kinematic variables to identify the reconstructed $`B`$ meson candidates conjugate : the beam-energy constrained mass, $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}=\sqrt{E_{\mathrm{beam}}^2p_B^2}`$, and the energy difference, $`\mathrm{\Delta }E=E_BE_{\mathrm{beam}}`$, where $`E_{\mathrm{beam}}`$ is the beam energy, and $`p_B`$ and $`E_B`$ are the momentum and energy of the reconstructed $`B`$ meson in the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$ rest frame. The candidate region is defined as 5.2 GeV/$`c^2<M_{\mathrm{bc}}<5.29`$ GeV/$`c^2`$ and $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|<0.2`$ GeV in this analysis.

The event selection criteria are based on the information obtained from the tracking system (SVD+CDC) and the hadron identification system (CDC+ACC+TOF), and are optimized using Monte Carlo (MC) simulated event samples.

All primary charged tracks are required to satisfy track quality criteria based on the track impact parameters relative to the interaction point (IP). The deviations from the IP position are required to be within $`\pm `$0.3 cm in the transverse ($`x`$-$`y`$) plane, and within $`\pm `$3 cm in the $`z`$ direction, where the $`z`$ axis is defined by the positron beam line. Primary proton candidates are selected based on $`p/K/\pi `$ likelihood functions obtained from the hadron identification system. We require $`L_p/(L_p+L_K)>0.3`$ and $`L_p/(L_p+L_\pi )>0.6`$, where $`L_{p/K/\pi }`$ stands for the proton/kaon/pion likelihood. For kaons (pions), we require the kaon (pion) $`K`$-$`\pi `$ likelihood ratio to be greater than 0.6. $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ candidates are reconstructed via the $`p\pi ^{}`$ decay channel using the method described in Ref. 2body . $`\mathrm{\Sigma }^0`$ candidates are reconstructed via the $`\mathrm{\Lambda }\gamma `$ decay channel, where we use a 35 MeV/$`c^2`$ mass window around the nominal mass PDG  and require the $`\gamma `$ energy to be greater than 100 MeV.

The dominant background for the rare decay modes reported here is from the continuum $`e^+e^{}q\overline{q}`$ process. The background from $`B`$ decays is much smaller. This is confirmed with an off-resonance data set (8.8 fb-1) accumulated at an energy that is 60 MeV below the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$, and an MC sample of 120 million continuum events. In the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$ rest frame, continuum events are jet-like while $`B\overline{B}`$ events are spherical. We follow the scheme defined in Ref. etapk  and combine seven shape variables to form a Fisher discriminant fisher  that is used to optimize continuum background suppression. The variables chosen have almost no correlation with $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$. Probability density functions (PDF’s) for the Fisher discriminant and the cosine of the angle between the $`B`$ flight direction and the $`e^{}`$ beam direction in the $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(4\mathrm{S})`$ rest frame are combined to form the signal (background) likelihood $`_{\mathrm{S}(\mathrm{BG})}`$. We require the likelihood ratio $`=_\mathrm{S}/(_\mathrm{S}+_{\mathrm{BG}})`$ to be greater than 0.8, which suppresses about 94% of the background while retaining 66% of the signal. The signal and background PDF’s are obtained from MC simulation studies.

Figure 1(a) shows the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distribution for selected $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$ candidates that have $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}>`$ 5.27 GeV/$`c^2`$; Fig. 1(b) shows the $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ distribution for events with $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|<`$ 0.03 GeV. With the current statistics, no intermediate resonances are evident in the Dalitz plot for this channel. We use a binned likelihood fit to estimate the signal yield. A Gaussian is used to parameterize the signal in $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ while a double Gaussian is used for $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$. The Gaussian parameters are determined from MC simulation. Background shapes are studied using side-band events (0.1 GeV $`<|\mathrm{\Delta }E|<0.2`$ GeV for the $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ study and 5.20 GeV/$`c^2`$ $`<M_{\mathrm{bc}}<`$ 5.26 GeV/$`c^2`$ for $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ ) and are checked with the continuum MC sample. We use the ARGUS function Argus  to model the $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ background and a linear function for the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ background. The fit results are shown as curves in Fig. 1. The fit to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distribution yields 39.2 $`{}_{8.4}{}^{}{}_{}{}^{+9.1}`$ candidates with a significance of $`5.8`$ standard deviations. The fit to the $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ distribution yields $`33.7_{7.4}^{+8.1}`$ candidates with a significance of $`5.7`$ standard deviations. The smaller yield in the $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ fit is consistent with the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ fit result after taking into account the efficiency of the $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|<0.03`$ GeV selection. The signal yields and the branching fractions are determined from fits to the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distribution rather than to $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ in order to minimize possible bias from $`B\overline{B}`$ background, which tends to peak in $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ but not in $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$.

Since the decay is not uniform in phase space, we fit the $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ signal yield in bins of $`M_{p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$, and correct for the MC-determined detection efficiency for each bin. This reduces the model dependence of the branching fraction determination. The signal yield as a function of $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ mass is shown in Fig. 2. The distribution from a three-body phase space MC, normalized to the area of the signal, is superimposed. The observed mass distribution peaks at low $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ mass, similar to that observed for $`B^+p\overline{p}K^+`$ decays ppk . The results of the fits, along with the efficiencies and partial branching fractions for each $`M_{p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$ bin, are given in Table 1. We sum the partial branching fractions in Table 1 to obtain

$$(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{})=(3.97_{\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}0.80}}^{+\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}1.00}}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.56(\mathrm{syst}))\times 10^6,$$

where the systematic uncertainty is described below.

The systematic uncertainty in particle selection is studied mainly using high statistics control samples. Proton identification is studied with a $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ sample. Kaon/pion identification is studied with a $`D^+D^0\pi ^+`$, $`D^0K^{}\pi ^+`$ sample. Tracking efficiency is studied with $`\eta \gamma \gamma `$ and $`\eta \pi ^+\pi ^{}\pi ^0`$ samples. Based on these studies, we assign a 2% error for each track, 3% for each proton identification requirement, and 2% for each kaon/pion identification requirement.

We study the $``$ continuum suppression by varying the $``$ cut value from 0 to 0.9 to check the systematic trend. The systematic error is found to be 4%. The additional uncertainty of off-IP tracks for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ reconstruction is estimated to be 6%, which is determined from the difference of the proper decay time distributions for data and MC simulation.

The systematic uncertainty in the fit yield is studied by varying the parameters of the signal and background PDF’s. We assign an error of 3% for this. The MC statistical uncertainty and modeling with eight $`M_{p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}`$ bins contributes a 4% error in the branching fraction determination. The error on the number of total $`B\overline{B}`$ pairs is determined to be 1%. The error of the branching fraction for $`\mathrm{\Lambda }p\pi ^{}`$ is 0.8% PDG .

The tracking systematic error is estimated to be 8% by summing the correlated errors of 2% per charged track. The particle identification error is estimated to be 8% by summing the correlated errors of 3% per proton identification and 2% for the primary pion identification. Then we combine them in quadrature along with other uncorrelated errors to determine a total systematic error of 14%.

We also search for the decay modes $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{}`$ and $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$. The $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }E`$ distributions with fit projections are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. With the signal region extended to $`|\mathrm{\Delta }E|<0.04`$ GeV and $`M_{\mathrm{bc}}>5.27`$ GeV/$`c^2`$, no significant signal is found. We use the fit results to estimate the expected background, and compare this with the observed number of events in the signal region in order to set the upper limit on the yield at the 90% confidence level Highland ; Gary ; Conrad . This procedure takes systematic uncertainties into account. The estimated backgrounds are $`28.9\pm 2.6`$ and $`50.5\pm 4.0`$, the numbers of observed events are 26 and 56, the systematic uncertainties are 14% and 28%, and the upper limit yields are 8.3 and 22.4 for $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{}`$ and $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$, respectively. We estimate the efficiencies from a phase space MC sample. The 90% confidence-level upper limits for the branching fractions are $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{})<8.2\times 10^7`$ and $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{})<3.8\times 10^6`$.

Following our observation of the $`B^+p\overline{p}K^+`$ mode, some authors CY ; CHT  predicted a much smaller branching fraction ($`<10^6`$) for the $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$ mode, but a relatively sizable $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$. Although the predicted rates are not borne out by our present findings, the threshold peaking behavior shown in Fig. 2 was anticipated HS ; rhopn ; CHT .

In summary, we have performed a search for the rare baryonic decays $`B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$, $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{}`$, and $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{}`$ with $`85.0\pm 0.5`$ million $`B\overline{B}`$ events. A clear signal is seen in the $`p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{}`$ mode, and we measure a branching fraction of $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}\pi ^{})=(3.97_{0.80}^{+1.00}\pm 0.56)\times 10^6`$. The other two modes are not seen, and we set 90% confidence-level upper limits of $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}K^{})<8.2\times 10^7`$ and $`(B^0p\overline{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^0\pi ^{})<3.8\times 10^6`$.

We wish to thank the KEKB accelerator group for the excellent operation of the KEKB accelerator. We acknowledge support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; the Australian Research Council and the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources; the National Science Foundation of China under contract No. 10175071; the Department of Science and Technology of India; the BK21 program of the Ministry of Education of Korea and the CHEP SRC program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation; the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research under contract No. 2P03B 17017; the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation; the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia; the National Science Council and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan; and the U.S. Department of Energy.