Three-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP^*) Observations: Temperature Analysis

We present new full-sky temperature maps in five frequency bands from 23 to 94 GHz, based on data from the first 3 years of the WMAP sky survey. The new maps are consistent with the first-year maps and are more sensitive. The 3 year maps incorporate several improvements in data processing made possible by the additional years of data and by a more complete analysis of the polarization signal. These include several new consistency tests as well as refinements in the gain calibration and beam response models. We employ two forms of multifrequency analysis to separate astrophysical foreground signals from the CMB, each of which improves on our first-year analyses. First, we form an improved "Internal Linear Combination" (ILC) map, based solely on WMAP data, by adding a bias-correction step and by quantifying residual uncertainties in the resulting map. Second, we fit and subtract new spatial templates that trace Galactic emission; in particular, we now use low-frequency WMAP data to trace synchrotron emission instead of the 408 MHz sky survey. The WMAP point source catalog is updated to include 115 new sources whose detection is made possible by the improved sky map sensitivity. We derive the angular power spectrum of the temperature anisotropy using a hybrid approach that combines a maximum likelihood estimate at low l (large angular scales) with a quadratic cross-power estimate for l > 30. The resulting multifrequency spectra are analyzed for residual point source contamination. At 94 GHz the unmasked sources contribute 128 ± 27 μK² to l(l + 1)C_l/2π at l = 1000. After subtracting this contribution, our best estimate of the CMB power spectrum is derived by averaging cross-power spectra from 153 statistically independent channel pairs. The combined spectrum is cosmic variance limited to l = 400, and the signal-to-noise ratio per l-mode exceeds unity up to l = 850. For bins of width Δl/l = 3%, the signal-to-noise ratio exceeds unity up to l = 1000. The first two acoustic peaks are seen at l = 220.8 ± 0.7 and l = 530.9 ± 3.8, respectively, while the first two troughs are seen at l = 412.4 ± 1.9 and l = 675.2 ± 11.1. The rise to the third peak is unambiguous; when the WMAP data are combined with higher resolution CMB measurements, the existence of a third acoustic peak is well established. Spergel et al. use the 3 year temperature and polarization data to constrain cosmological model parameters. A simple six-parameter ΛCDM model continues to fit CMB data and other measures of large-scale structure remarkably well. The new polarization data produce a better measurement of the optical depth to reionization, τ = 0.089 ± 0.03. This new and tighter constraint on τ helps break a degeneracy with the scalar spectral index, which is now found to be n_s = 0.960 ± 0.016. If additional cosmological data sets are included in the analysis, the spectral index is found to be n_s = 0.947 ± 0.015.