paper

Model-independent cosmological constraints from the CMB

arXiv:1003.0810 · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2010/08/023

Abstract

We analyse CMB data in a manner which is as model-independent as possible. We encode the effects of late-time cosmology into a single parameter which determines the distance to the last scattering surface. We exclude low multipoles $ℓ < 40$ from the analysis. We consider the WMAP5 and ACBAR data. We obtain the cosmological parameters $100 I ¨ _{b} = 2.13 \pm 0.05$ , $I ¨ _{c} = 0.124 \pm 0.007$ , $n_{s} = 0.93 \pm 0.02$ and $I^¸_{A} = 0.593 \pm 0.001$ degrees (68% C.L.). The last number is the angular scale subtended by the sound horizon at decoupling. There is a systematic shift in the parameters as more low $ℓ$ data is omitted, towards smaller values of $I ¨ _{b}$ and $n_{s}$ and larger values of $I ¨ _{c}$ . The scale $I^¸_{A}$ remains stable and very well determined.

30 pages, 11 figures, final version to appear in JCAP