The observability of secondary doppler peaks

By proposing a statistic for the detection of secondary (Doppler) peaks in the CMBR power spectrum, the significance level at which such peaks may be detected are computed for a large range of model CMBR experiments. In particular, we investigate experimental design features required to distinguish between competing cosmological theories, such as cosmic strings and inflation, by establishing whether or not secondary peaks are present in the CMBR power spectrum.