Performance of XFaster likelihood in real CMB experiments

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the XFaster likelihood method for analyzing CMB data, comparing it to other formalisms using simulated Planck satellite data, and finds it performs well without loss of accuracy.

Contribution

It provides a comparative assessment of the XFaster likelihood against other methods, highlighting its advantages in CMB data analysis.

Findings

XFaster likelihood yields parameter estimates consistent with other methods.

Performance of XFaster is comparable to the Offset Lognormal Bandpower likelihood.

Advantages of XFaster can be achieved without sacrificing accuracy.

Abstract

We assess the strengths and weaknesses of several likelihood formalisms, including the XFaster likelihood. We compare the performance of the XFaster likelihood to that of the Offset Lognormal Bandpower likelihood on simulated data for the Planck satellite. Parameters estimated with these two likelihoods are in good agreement. The advantages of the XFaster likelihood can therefore be realized without compromising performance.