Uncorrelated estimates of the primordial power spectrum

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2011/11/032· OSTI ID:22280269

Guo, Zong-Kuan; Zhang, Yuan-Zhong ^[1]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2735, Beijing 100190 (China)

We use the localized principle component analysis to detect deviations from scale invariance of the primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbations. With the technique we make uncorrelated estimates of the primordial power spectrum with five wavenumber bins. In the framework of a minimal ΛCDM model, using the latest cosmic microwave background data from the WMAP and ACT experiments we find that more than 95% of the preferred models are incompatible with the assumption of scale-invariance, but still compatible with a power-law primordial spectrum. We also forecast the sensitivity and constraints achievable by the Planck experiment by performing Monte Carlo studies on simulated data. Planck could significantly improve the constraints on the primordial power spectrum, especially at small scales by roughly a factor of 4.

• OSTI ID: 22280269
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 2011; ISSN 1475-7516
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT
COSMOLOGY
DISTURBANCES
ENERGY SPECTRA
MONTE CARLO METHOD
RELICT RADIATION
SCALE INVARIANCE
SENSITIVITY