A Comparison of Cosmological Parameters Determined from CMB Temperature Power Spectra from the South Pole Telescope and the Planck Satellite

Abstract

The Planck cosmic microwave background temperature data are best fit with a ΛCDM model that mildly contradicts constraints from other cosmological probes. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) 2540 SPT-SZ survey offers measurements on sub-degree angular scales (multipoles ) with sufficient precision to use as an independent check of the Planck data. Here we build on the recent joint analysis of the SPT-SZ and Planck data in Hou et al. by comparing ΛCDM parameter estimates using the temperature power spectrum from both data sets in the SPT-SZ survey region. We also restrict the multipole range used in parameter fitting to focus on modes measured well by both SPT and Planck, thereby greatly reducing sample variance as a driver of parameter differences and creating a stringent test for systematic errors. We find no evidence of systematic errors from these tests. When we expand the maximum multipole of SPT data used, we see low-significance shifts in the angular scale of the sound horizon and the physical baryon and cold dark matter densities, with a resulting trend to higher Hubble constant. When we compare SPT and Planck data on the SPT-SZ sky patch to Planck full-sky data but keep the multipole range restricted, we find differences in the parameters n s and . We perform further checks, investigating instrumental effects and modeling assumptions, and we find no evidence that the effects investigated are responsible for any of the parameter shifts. Taken together, these tests reveal no evidence for systematic errors in SPT or Planck data in the overlapping sky coverage and multipole range and at most weak evidence for a breakdown of ΛCDM or systematic errors influencing either the Planck data outside the SPT-SZ survey area or the SPT data at .

Measurements of the Temperature and E-mode Polarization of the CMB from 500 Square Degrees of SPTpol Data

“…This is similar to the behavior measured by Aylor et al (2017) on SPT-SZ temperature data on 2500 deg 2 , of which the SPTpol field is a subset. The parameter most affected by the inclusion of SPTPOL is 8 s , which decreases by 1 s from the value preferred by PLANCKTT alone.…”

“…Interestingly, this behavior is similar to that observed by Aylor et al (2017) in the 2500 deg 2 SPT-SZ temperature power spectrum, especially since the SPTpol 500 deg 2 survey is a subset of this larger field. Aylor et al (2017) find that the Planck and SPT-SZ temperature data are completely consistent when restricted to the same sky modes. However, their density parameters shift toward a higher baryon density and lower matter density when going from the full sky to the SPT-SZ survey patch, and when adding the small-scale data.…”

A Comparison of Maps and Power Spectra Determined from South Pole Telescope and Planck Data

“…In a companion paper (Aylor et al 2017), we extend this comparison to the cosmological parameters that can be derived from these bandpowers.…”

Pattern of perturbations from a coherent quantum inflationary horizon

“…where observed perturbations [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] have A 2 ∼ 10 −9 . Perturbations that scale like Eq.…”