The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck

Details The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck

2009-12-02

arxiv.org/abs/0912.0268v1

Phys.Rev.D81:021302,2010

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

5 pages, 4 figures

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevD.81.021302

We present a minimally-parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum using the most recent cosmic microwave background and large scale structure data sets. Our goal is to constrain the shape of the power spectrum while simultaneously avoiding strong theoretical priors and over-fitting of the data. We find no evidence for any departure from a power law spectral index. We also find that an exact scale-invariant power spectrum is disfavored by the data, but this conclusion is weaker than the corresponding result assuming a theoretically-motivated power law spectral index prior. The reconstruction shows that better data are crucial to justify the adoption of such a strong theoretical prior observationally. These results can be used to determine the robustness of our present knowledge when compared with forthcoming precision data from Planck.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Shape of the Primordial Power Spectrum: A Last Stand Before Planck will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-507994