Harrison-Zel'dovich primordial spectrum is consistent with observations

Journal Article · Tue Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.123509· OSTI ID:21408044

Pandolfi, Stefania ^[1]; Cooray, Asantha; Serra, Paolo ^[2]; Giusarma, Elena; Mena, Olga ^[3]; Kolb, Edward W ^[4]; Melchiorri, Alessandro ^[5]

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1. ICRA and INFN, Universita di Roma 'La Sapienza', Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome (Italy)
2. Center for Cosmology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, California 92697 (United States)
3. IFIC, Universidad de Valencia-CSIC, 46071, Valencia (Spain)
4. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 (United States)
5. Physics Department and INFN, Universita di Roma 'La Sapienza', Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185, Rome (Italy)

Inflation predicts primordial scalar perturbations with a nearly scale-invariant spectrum and a spectral index approximately unity [the Harrison-Zel'dovich (HZ) spectrum]. The first important step for inflationary cosmology is to check the consistency of the HZ primordial spectrum with current observations. Recent analyses have claimed that a HZ primordial spectrum is excluded at more than 99% c.l. Here we show that the HZ spectrum is only marginally disfavored if one considers a more general reionization scenario. Data from the Planck mission will settle the issue.

• OSTI ID: 21408044
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.123509; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
COSMOLOGY
DISTURBANCES
INFLATIONARY UNIVERSE
PERTURBATION THEORY
SPECTRA
COSMOLOGICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS