Early cosmology constrained

We investigate our knowledge of early universe cosmology by exploring how much additional energy density can be placed in different components beyond those in the ΛCDM model. To do this we use a method to separate early- and late-universe information enclosed in observational data, thus markedly red...

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Main Authors: Verde, L, Bellini, E, Pigozzo, C, Heavens, A, Jimenez, R
Format: Journal article
Published: Institute of Physics 2017
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author Verde, L
Bellini, E
Pigozzo, C
Heavens, A
Jimenez, R
author_facet Verde, L
Bellini, E
Pigozzo, C
Heavens, A
Jimenez, R
author_sort Verde, L
collection OXFORD
description We investigate our knowledge of early universe cosmology by exploring how much additional energy density can be placed in different components beyond those in the ΛCDM model. To do this we use a method to separate early- and late-universe information enclosed in observational data, thus markedly reducing the model-dependency of the conclusions. We find that the 95% credibility regions for extra energy components of the early universe at recombination are: non-accelerating additional fluid density parameter Ω MR < 0.006 and extra radiation parameterised as extra effective neutrino species 2.3 < N eff < 3.2 when imposing flatness. Our constraints thus show that even when analyzing the data in this largely model-independent way, the possibility of hiding extra energy components beyond ΛCDM in the early universe is seriously constrained by current observations. We also find that the standard ruler, the sound horizon at radiation drag, can be well determined in a way that does not depend on late-time Universe assumptions, but depends strongly on early-time physics and in particular on additional components that behave like radiation. We find that the standard ruler length determined in this way is r s = 147.4 ± 0.7 Mpc if the radiation and neutrino components are standard, but the uncertainty increases by an order of magnitude when non-standard dark radiation components are allowed, to r s = 150 ± 5 Mpc.
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spelling oxford-uuid:00e0bfa5-e8eb-4f19-9373-46836b8910062022-03-26T08:31:52ZEarly cosmology constrainedJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:00e0bfa5-e8eb-4f19-9373-46836b891006Symplectic Elements at OxfordInstitute of Physics2017Verde, LBellini, EPigozzo, CHeavens, AJimenez, RWe investigate our knowledge of early universe cosmology by exploring how much additional energy density can be placed in different components beyond those in the ΛCDM model. To do this we use a method to separate early- and late-universe information enclosed in observational data, thus markedly reducing the model-dependency of the conclusions. We find that the 95% credibility regions for extra energy components of the early universe at recombination are: non-accelerating additional fluid density parameter Ω MR < 0.006 and extra radiation parameterised as extra effective neutrino species 2.3 < N eff < 3.2 when imposing flatness. Our constraints thus show that even when analyzing the data in this largely model-independent way, the possibility of hiding extra energy components beyond ΛCDM in the early universe is seriously constrained by current observations. We also find that the standard ruler, the sound horizon at radiation drag, can be well determined in a way that does not depend on late-time Universe assumptions, but depends strongly on early-time physics and in particular on additional components that behave like radiation. We find that the standard ruler length determined in this way is r s = 147.4 ± 0.7 Mpc if the radiation and neutrino components are standard, but the uncertainty increases by an order of magnitude when non-standard dark radiation components are allowed, to r s = 150 ± 5 Mpc.
spellingShingle Verde, L
Bellini, E
Pigozzo, C
Heavens, A
Jimenez, R
Early cosmology constrained
title Early cosmology constrained
title_full Early cosmology constrained
title_fullStr Early cosmology constrained
title_full_unstemmed Early cosmology constrained
title_short Early cosmology constrained
title_sort early cosmology constrained
work_keys_str_mv AT verdel earlycosmologyconstrained
AT bellinie earlycosmologyconstrained
AT pigozzoc earlycosmologyconstrained
AT heavensa earlycosmologyconstrained
AT jimenezr earlycosmologyconstrained