A novel multifrequency technique for the detection of point sources in cosmic microwave background maps

Abstract

In this work we address the problem of simultaneous multifrequency detection of extragalactic point sources in the maps of the cosmic microwave background. We apply a new linear filtering technique, the 'matched matrix filters', that incorporates full spatial information, including the cross-correlation among channels, without making any a priori assumption about the spectral behaviour of the sources. A substantial reduction of the background is achieved thanks to the optimal combination of filtered maps. We describe the new technique in detail and apply it to the detection of radio sources and estimation of their parameters in realistic all-sky Planck simulations at 30, 44, 70 and 100 GHz. Then, we compare the results with the single-frequency approach based on the standard matched filter, in terms of reliability, completeness and flux accuracy of the resulting point source catalogues. The new filters outperform the standard matched filters for all these indexes at 30, 44 and 70 GHz, whereas at 100 GHz both kinds of filters have a similar performance. We find a notable increment of the number of true detections for a fixed reliability level. In particular, for a 95 per cent reliability we practically double the number of detections at 30, 44 and 70 GHz. © 2009 RAS.