The combination of seven-year data from WMAP and improved astrophysical data rigorously tests the standard cosmological model and places new constraints on its basic parameters and extensions. By combining the WMAP data with the latest distance measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the distribution of galaxies and the Hubble constant (H 0 ) measurement, we determine the parameters of the simplest six-parameter ΛCDM model. The power-law index of the primordial power spectrum is n s = 0.968 ± 0.012 (68% CL) for this data combination, a measurement that excludes the Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles spectrum by 99.5% CL. The other parameters, including those beyond the minimal set, are also consistent with, and improved from, the five-year results. We find no convincing deviations from the minimal model. The seven-year temperature power spectrum gives a better determination of the third acoustic peak, which results in a better determination of the redshift of the matter-radiation equality epoch. Notable examples of improved parameters are the total mass of neutrinos, m ν < 0.58 eV (95% CL), and the effective number of neutrino species, N eff = 4.34 +0.86 −0.88 (68% CL), which benefit from better determinations of the third peak and H 0 . The limit on a constant dark energy equation of state parameter from WMAP+BAO+H 0 , without high-redshift Type Ia supernovae, is w = −1.10 ± 0.14 (68% CL). We detect the effect of primordial helium on the temperature power spectrum and provide a new test of big bang nucleosynthesis by measuring Y p = 0.326 ± 0.075 (68% CL). We detect, and show on the map for the first time, the tangential and radial polarization patterns around hot and cold spots of temperature fluctuations, an important test of physical processes at z = 1090 and the dominance of adiabatic scalar fluctuations. The seven-year polarization data have significantly improved: we now detect the temperature-E-mode polarization cross power spectrum at 21σ , compared with 13σ from the five-year data. With the seven-year temperature-B-mode cross power spectrum, the limit on a rotation of the polarization plane due to potential parity-violating effects has improved by 38% to Δα = −1.• 1 ± 1.• 4(statistical) ± 1.• 5(systematic) (68% CL). We report significant detections of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect at the locations of known clusters of galaxies. The measured SZ signal agrees well with the expected signal from the X-ray data on a cluster-by-cluster basis. However, it is a factor of 0.5-0.7 times the predictions from "universal profile" of Arnaud et al., analytical models, and hydrodynamical simulations. We find, for the first time in the SZ effect, a significant difference between the cooling-flow and non-cooling-flow clusters (or relaxed and non-relaxed clusters), which can explain some of the discrepancy. This lower amplitude is consistent with the lower-than-theoretically expected SZ power spectrum recently measured by the South Pole Telescope Collaboration.

A simple cosmological model with only six parameters (matter density, m h 2 , baryon density, b h 2 , Hubble constant, H 0 , amplitude of fluctuations, 8 , optical depth, , and a slope for the scalar perturbation spectrum, n s ) fits not only the 3 year WMAP temperature and polarization data, but also small-scale CMB data, light element abundances, large-scale structure observations, and the supernova luminosity/distance relationship. Using WMAP data only, the bestfit values for cosmological parameters for the power-law flat à cold dark matter (ÃCDM) model are ( m h 2 ; b h 2 ; h; n s ; ; 8 ) ¼ (0:1277 þ0:0080 À0:0079 ;0:02229 AE 0:00073;0:732 þ0:031 À0:032 ;0:958 AE 0:016;0:089 AE 0:030; 0:761 þ0:049 À0:048 ). The 3 year data dramatically shrink the allowed volume in this six-dimensional parameter space. Assuming that the primordial fluctuations are adiabatic with a power-law spectrum, the WMAP data alone require dark matter and favor a spectral index that is significantly less than the Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles scale-invariant spectrum (n s ¼ 1; r ¼ 0). Adding additional data sets improves the constraints on these components and the spectral slope. For power-law models, WMAP data alone puts an improved upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, r 0:002 < 0:65 (95% CL) and the combination of WMAP and the lensing-normalized SDSS galaxy survey implies r 0:002 < 0:30 (95% CL). Models that suppress largescale power through a running spectral index or a large-scale cutoff in the power spectrum are a better fit to the WMAP and small-scale CMB data than the power-law ÃCDM model; however, the improvement in the fit to the WMAP data is only Á 2 ¼ 3 for 1 extra degree of freedom. Models with a running-spectral index are consistent with a higher amplitude of gravity waves. In a flat universe, the combination of WMAP and the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) data yields a significant constraint on the equation of state of the dark energy, w ¼ À0:967 þ0:073 À0:072 . If we assume w ¼ À1, then the deviations from the critical density, K , are small: the combination of WMAP and the SNLS data implies k ¼ À0:011 AE 0:012. The combination of WMAP 3 year data plus the HST Key Project constraint on H 0 implies k ¼ À0:014 AE 0:017 and à ¼ 0:716 AE 0:055. Even if we do not include the prior that the universe is flat, by combining WMAP, large-scale structure, and supernova data, we can still put a strong constraint on the dark energy equation of state, w ¼ À1:08 AE 0:12. For a flat universe, the combination of WMAP and other astronomical data yield a constraint on the sum of the neutrino masses, P m < 0:66 eV (95%CL). Consistent with the predictions of simple inflationary theories, we detect no significant deviations from Gaussianity in the CMB maps using Minkowski functionals, the bispectrum, trispectrum, and a new statistic designed to detect large-scale anisotropies in the fluctuations. Subject headingg s: cosmic microwave background -cosmology: observations

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We present an extensive ALMA spectroscopic follow-up programme of the $z\, {=}\, 4.3$ structure SPT2349–56, one of the most actively star-forming protocluster cores known, to identify additional members using their [C ii] 158 μm and CO(4–3) lines. In addition to robustly detecting the 14 previously published galaxies in this structure, we identify a further 15 associated galaxies at $z\, {=}\, 4.3$, resolving 55$\, {\pm }\,$5 per cent of the 870 μm flux density at 0.5 arcsec resolution compared to 21 arcsec single-dish data. These galaxies are distributed into a central core containing 23 galaxies extending out to 300 kpc in diameter, and a northern extension, offset from the core by 400 kpc, containing three galaxies. We discovered three additional galaxies in a red Herschel-SPIRE source 1.5 Mpc from the main structure, suggesting the existence of many other sources at the same redshift as SPT2349–56 that are not yet detected in the limited coverage of our data. An analysis of the velocity distribution of the central galaxies indicates that this region may be virialized with a mass of (9$\pm 5)\, {\times }\, 10^{12}$  M⊙, while the two offset galaxy groups are about 30 and 60 per cent less massive and show significant velocity offsets from the central group. We calculate the [C ii] and far-infrared number counts, and find evidence for a break in the [C ii] luminosity function. We estimate the average SFR density within the region of SPT2349–56 containing single-dish emission (a proper diameter of 720 kpc), assuming spherical symmetry, to be roughly 4$\, {\times }\, 10^4$ M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3; this may be an order of magnitude greater than the most extreme examples seen in simulations.

We present the projected Rayleigh statistic (PRS), a modification of the classic Rayleigh statistic, as a test for non-uniform relative orientation between two pseudovector fields. In the application here this gives an effective way of investigating whether polarization pseudo-vectors (spin-2 quantities) are preferentially parallel or perpendicular to filaments in the interstellar medium. For example, there are other potential applications in astrophysics, e.g., when comparing small-scale orientations with largerscale shear patterns. We compare the efficiency of the PRS against histogram binning methods that have previously been used for characterising the relative orientations of gas column density structures with the magnetic field projected on the plane of the sky. We examine data for the Vela C molecular cloud, where the column density is inferred from Herschel submillimetre observations, and the magnetic field from observations by the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimetre Telescope in the 250-, 350-, and 500-µm wavelength bands. We find that the PRS has greater statistical power than approaches that bin the relative orientation angles, as it makes more efficient use of the information contained in the data. In particular, the use of the PRS to test for preferential alignment results in a higher statistical significance, in each of the four Vela C regions, with the greatest increase being by a factor 1.3 in the South-Nest region in the 250-µm band.