ABSTRACT 9419279 Readhead, A.C.S. Observations of the Microwave Background Radiation provide information which is crucial to theories of the formation of large-scale structure in the Universe. The extremely low level of anisotropy observed in the microwave background radiation has focused attention on theories of structure formation which propose that the dominant matter content of the Universe is in the form of non-baryonic matter. The questions of the dominant matter content of the Universe and the formation of structure in the Universe are fundamental and are amongst the most important questions in cosmology. Dr. Readhead and colleagues at Cal Tech will examine the anisotropy of the background radiation on angular scales from 2 to 20 arcminutes using radio wavelength telescopes at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. Additional observations will be carried out to study the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect -- the scattering of microwave background radiation photons by the hot electron gas in galaxy clusters. ***
