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New Hot Paper Comments

By David N. Spergel

ESI Special Topics, March 2004
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2004/march-04-DavidSpergel.html

David N. Spergel answers a few questions about this month's new hot paper in the field of Space Science.

From •>>March 2004

Field: Space Science
 Article Title: First-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) observations: Determination of cosmological parameters
 Authors: Spergel, DN;Verde, L;Peiris, HV;Komatsu, E;Nolta, MR;Bennett, CL;Halpern, M;Hinshaw, G;Jarosik, N;Kogut, A;Limon, M;Meyer, SS;Page, L;Tucker, GS;Weiland, JL;Wollack, E;Wright, EL
Journal: ASTROPHYS J SUPPL SER
Volume: 148
Page: 175-194
Year: SEP 2003
* Princeton Univ, Dept Astrophys Sci, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA.
* Princeton Univ, Dept Astrophys Sci, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA.
* Dept Phys, Princeton, NJ 08544 USA.
* NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA.
* Univ British Columbia, Dept Phys & Astron, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.
* Univ Chicago, Dept Astron & Astrophys, Chicago, IL 60637 USA.
* Univ Chicago, Dept EFI, Chicago, IL 60637 USA.
* Univ Chicago, Dept CfCP, Chicago, IL 60637 USA.
* Brown Univ, Dept Phys, Providence, RI 02912 USA.
* Sci Syst & Applicat Inc, Lanham, MD 20706 USA.
* Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Astron, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.
 Read comments by Verde, L; co-author of this New Hot Paper.
 Read the full article in SCI-BYTES as the Hot Paper in Physics.

ST:  Why do you think your paper is highly cited?


“We analyzed the newly released data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP)”

It is an analysis of the WMAP data, a major data set that represents a significant advance beyond previous CMB experiments.

ST:  Does it describe a new discovery or a new methodology that's useful to others?

The paper both presents new results and synthesizes the new results with the previous data. Most of the new methodology was described in companion papers (Verde et al.; Hinshaw et al.)

ST:  Could you summarize the significance of your paper in layman's terms?

We analyzed the newly released data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We showed that a simple model with only a handful of parameters could not only fit the WMAP data but also a vast array of astronomical data. We used the WMAP data (and the external data sets) to constrain basic cosmological parameters (the age, composition and lumpiness of the early universe) as well as basic physics parameters (mass of neutrino, etc.).

ST:  How did you become involved in this research?

In 1994, I was asked by join the MAP team, a group of scientists who proposed the WMAP mission. The mission, the data and the analyses corresponded remarkably well to our 1996 proposal to NASA.End

David N. Spergel
Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ, USA

Read comments by Verde, L; co-author of this New Hot Paper.
 Read the full article in SCI-BYTES as the Hot Paper in Physics.

ESI Special Topics, March 2004
Citing URL - http://www.esi-topics.com/nhp/2004/march-04-DavidSpergel.html

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