Search for correlations between COBE DMR and ROSAT PSPC All-Sky survey data

TL;DR

This study investigates the correlation between cosmic microwave background data from COBE DMR and X-ray background data from ROSAT, finding no significant extragalactic correlation on large scales and highlighting the dominance of Galactic effects.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed cross-correlation analysis between COBE DMR and ROSAT data, setting upper limits on extragalactic correlations and addressing Galactic contamination effects.

Findings

No significant extragalactic correlation detected on scales of 7-40 degrees.

Galactic correlation is significant only at quadrupole scales.

Upper limits on correlation are about 15% of COBE fluctuations.

Abstract

Results from a cross-correlation analysis between the COBE DMR 4 year, and ROSAT PSPC All-Sky Survey data are presented. Statistical comparisons between microwave and X-ray maps can probe interesting astrophysical environments and processes, such as e.g. the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies or the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. In order to test the diffuse, extragalactic X-ray background as probed by ROSAT, against the COBE DMR large-scale CMB structure, our analysis was performed in most detail in a ROSAT selected region of the sky (40 deg < b, 70 < l < 250 deg) in an X-ray energy range with minimal Galactic structure and residual X-ray contamination. Comparing to other regions of the sky and neighbouring energies and frequencies, we find indication for a positive Galactic correlation on large scales. Removing a quadrupole term on a sky map with a Galactic cutout or related gradients in the selected regions leaves no correlations above a 1-sigma level on smaller angular scales. We conclude that there is no significant extragalactic correlation on scales for which the combined data are sensitive (7 deg - 40 deg) and that Galactic correlation is significant only on angular scales of the order of the quadrupole. In the context of removing large angular scale gradients we give results on best fit X-ray dipoles from various ROSAT data and discuss these with respect to the difficulty of finding a cosmological dipole. The lowest correlation upper limits we can place are about 15 % of COBE CMB fluctuations and about 10 % of the ROSAT extragalactic XRB fluctuations. We discuss these results with respect to possible correlation mechanisms.