ESTIMATING MICROWAVE POWER SPECTRA

A new method for estimating the power spectrum $C_l$ from cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps was recently presented by the author and applied to the 2 year COBE data. It was found that the spectral resolution $\mathrm{\Delta }l$ for COBE could be more than doubled at $l=15$, thereby revealing previously unresolved features in the power spectrum. Whereas that paper was rather technical, the present paper shows that all qualitative features of this method can be understood from a simple analogy with quantum mechanics.