MAPSIM is a set of C codes designed to generate simulted maps of the cosmic microwave backgroud (CMB). We assume that the CMB anisotropy is a realization of a Gaussian random field, as is the case of all inflationary cosmological models. Given a set of temperature and polarization angular power spectra, MAPSIM will compute spatial intensity maps of the CMB Stokes parameters. These Stokes parameters are T (temperature, equivalent to the intensity), Q, and U. The CMB is radiation which is Thomson scattered off of electrons at the surface of last scattering. Thomson scattering produces linear polarization only and no circular polarization, so we expect the Stokes parameter V=0 at all locations on the sky.

MAPSIM was developed by Matthew Abroe at the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, under the auspicies of the COMBAT collaboration.