Limits of Gaussian fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background at 19.2 GHz

Abstract

The northern hemisphere data from the 19.2 GHz full sky survey are analyzed to place limits on the magnitude of Gaussian fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background implied by a variety of correlation functions. Included among the models tested are the monochromatic and Gaussian shaped families, and those with power-law spectra for -2<=n<=1. We place an upper bound on the quadrupole anisotropy of {DELTA}T/T < 3.2 x 10^-5^ rms, and an upper bound on scale-invariant (n = 1) fluctuations of a_2_ <4.5 x 10^-5^ (95% confidence level). There is significant contamination of these data from Galactic emission, and improvement of our modeling of the Galaxy could yield a significant reduction of these upper bounds.