Release Notes for WMAP Science Team Publications

The data made available through this page has been updated. The most recent version of this data may be accessed through /product/map/current/

Changes to the Three-Year Analysis

Below is a summary of the substantive changes to the WMAP three-year papers and to the cosmological parameters tables since their original delivery to LAMBDA.

26 December 2007

Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis by Page, et al.

• Two typographical corrections are reported.

5 January 2007

Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Beam Profiles, Data Processing, Radiometer Characterization and Systematic Error Limits by Jarosik, et al.

• Added Figure 5 to Section 2.5 to help explain the filtering of the time-ordered-data.
• Added uncertainty estimates to the transmission imbalance measurements in Table 2
• Corrected an error in the description of the numbers of non-zero elements in each row of the N^-1 matrix.
• Added Section 4.2 and Figure 15: a short description of a frequency-combined year-to-year null test of the Stokes I maps.

Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Temperature Results by Hinshaw, et al.

• Updated Section 7.4 on the low-l likelihood. This produced a more accurate low-l analysis that extends to higher multipole moment than was previously the case. We refer to Spergel et al. for how these changes impact cosmological parameter estimates. We thank H.K. Eriksen for extensive correspondence on this topic.
• Updated the point source discussion in Section 7.2, based on correspondence with K. Huffenberger. The result is a lower source amplitude (from 0.017 +/- 0.002 to 0.014 +/- 0.003). We refer to Spergel et al. for how these changes impact cosmological parameter estimates.
• All Figures showing the power spectra have been updated to reflect these changes.
• A number of minor text changes throughout to improve clarity. We have also added a handful of new references.

Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Polarization Analysis by Page, et al.

• Updated Section 4.1 to bring it into accord with modern terminology and the community's understanding of the Galactic magnetic field. An error in Figures 8 and 9 was pointed out to us and was fixed.
• Language throughout the paper was changed so that "foreground modeling" refers to the work in Section 4.1 while "template subtraction" and/or "foreground subtraction" refers to cleaning the foreground emission from the maps. The foreground modeling is only marginally related to the foreground cleaning.
• Numerous additional checks of the foreground subtraction were made, including marginalizing over them. The original method was found to be sound, so the new checks did not alter any of the conclusions.
• We have made a number of minor text changes throughout the paper to improve clarity.

Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Implications for Cosmology by Spergel, et al.

• Several problematic model/dataset combinations were reprocessed to improve their Markov chain convergence. The Tables in the paper have been updated accordingly. The entries in the Cosmological parameter Table on LAMBDA were updated withe "v2p1" chains in mid-2006 to reflect these changes. The results of this reprocessing did not materially affect any cosmological conclusions.
• Several Figures were updated to correct some plotting errors in the original versions.
• Several model/dataset combinations were rerun to assess the impact of changes to the low-l likelihood and the point source correction in Hinshaw et al. The main effect is a ~0.5 σ upward shift in the spectral index, n_s, and a ~0.3 σ increase in σ₈. The results of this study are detailed in Appendix A. The likelihood code maintained on LAMBDA has already been updated to reflect these changes. Release notes for the likelihood code are maintained at http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/map/current/likelihood_info.cfm.
• Section 8.5 and Appendix C were excised from the paper.
• Several references have been added.

Cosmological Parameter Tables at LAMBDA

See the Release Notes for the Parameter Tables for details.