Maximum-likelihood estimation of the cosmic microwave background power spectrum from interferometer observations

A maximum-likelihood method is presented for estimating the power spectrum of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) from interferometer observations. The method calculates flat band-power estimates in separate bins in l-space, together with confidence intervals on the power in each bin. For multifrequency data, the power spectrum of the other foreground components may also be recovered. Advantage is taken of several characteristic properties of interferometer data, which together allow the fast calculation of the likelihood function. The method may be applied to single-field or mosaicked observations, and proper account can be taken of non-coplanar baselines. The method is illustrated by application to simulated data from the Very Small Array.