Testing Gaussianity on Archeops Data

Aims. A Gaussianity analysis using a goodness-of-fit test has been performed to study the measured Archeops Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) temperature anisotropy data for a 143 GHz Archeops bolometer. We consider large angular scales, greater than 1.8 degrees, and a large fraction of the North Galactic hemisphere, around 16%, with a galactic latitude b > 15 degrees. Methods. The considered goodness-of-fit test, first proposed by Rayner & Best (1989), has been applied to the data after a signal-to-noise decomposition. The method has been calibrated using simulations of Archeops data containing the CMB signal and instrumental noise. Two kind of maps produced with two different map-making techniques (coaddition and Mirage) have been analysed. Results. Archeops maps for both Mirage and coaddition map-making, have been found to be compatible with Gaussianity. From these results we can exclude a dust and atmospheric contamination larger than 11.5% (90% CL). For comparison, the same method has been applied to data from the NASA WMAP satellite in the same region of sky. The 1-year and 3-year releases have been used. Results are compatible with those obtained with Archeops, implying a similar upper limit for fnl on degree angular scales.