Cosmological parameter analysis including SDSS Lyα forest and galaxy bias: Constraints on the primordial spectrum of fluctuations, neutrino mass, and dark energy

Uroš Seljak, Alexey Makarov, Patrick McDonald, Scott F. Anderson, Neta A. Bahcall, J. Brinkmann, Scott Burles, Renyue Cen, Mamoru Doi, James E. Gunn, Željko Ivezić, Stephen Kent, Jon Loveday, Robert H. Lupton, Jeffrey A. Munn, Robert C. Nichol, Jeremiah P. Ostriker, David J. Schlegel, Donald P. Schneider, Max Tegmark, Daniel E. Vanden Berk, David H. Weinberg, and Donald G. York
Phys. Rev. D 71, 103515 – Published 20 May 2005

Abstract

We combine the constraints from the recent Lyα forest analysis of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the SDSS galaxy bias analysis with previous constraints from SDSS galaxy clustering, the latest supernovae, and 1st year WMAP cosmic microwave background anisotropies. We find significant improvements on all of the cosmological parameters compared to previous constraints, which highlights the importance of combining Lyα forest constraints with other probes. Combining WMAP and the Lyα forest we find for the primordial slope ns=0.98±0.02. We see no evidence of running, dn/dlnk=0.003±0.010, a factor of 3 improvement over previous constraints. We also find no evidence of tensors, r<0.36 (95% c.l.). Inflationary models predict the absence of running and many among them satisfy these constraints, particularly negative curvature models such as those based on spontaneous symmetry breaking. A positive correlation between tensors and primordial slope disfavors chaotic inflation-type models with steep slopes: while the Vϕ2 model is within the 2-sigma contour, Vϕ4 is outside the 3-sigma contour. For the amplitude we find σ8=0.90±0.03 from the Lyα forest and WMAP alone. We find no evidence of neutrino mass: for the case of 3 massive neutrino families with an inflationary prior, mν<0.42 eV and the mass of lightest neutrino is m1<0.13 eV at 95% c.l. For the 3 massless +1 massive neutrino case we find mν<0.79 eV for the massive neutrino, excluding at 95% c.l. all neutrino mass solutions compatible with the LSND results. We explore dark energy constraints in models with a fairly general time dependence of dark energy equation of state, finding Ωλ=0.72±0.02, w(z=0.3)=0.980.12+0.10, the latter changing to w(z=0.3)=0.920.10+0.09 if tensors are allowed. We find no evidence for variation of the equation of state with redshift, w(z=1)=1.030.28+0.21. These results rely on the current understanding of the Lyα forest and other probes, which need to be explored further both observationally and theoretically, but extensive tests reveal no evidence of inconsistency among different data sets used here.

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  • Received 28 July 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.71.103515

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Uroš Seljak1,2, Alexey Makarov1, Patrick McDonald1, Scott F. Anderson3, Neta A. Bahcall4, J. Brinkmann5, Scott Burles6, Renyue Cen4, Mamoru Doi7, James E. Gunn4, Željko Ivezić4,3, Stephen Kent8, Jon Loveday9, Robert H. Lupton4, Jeffrey A. Munn10, Robert C. Nichol11, Jeremiah P. Ostriker4,12, David J. Schlegel4, Donald P. Schneider13, Max Tegmark14,6, Daniel E. Vanden Berk13, David H. Weinberg15, and Donald G. York16

  • 1Physics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
  • 2International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy;
  • 3Astronomy Department, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
  • 4Princeton University Observatory, Princeton, New Jersey
  • 5Apache Point Observatory, 2001 Apache Point Rd, Sunspot, New Mexico 88349-0059, USA
  • 6Dept. of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
  • 7Institute of Astronomy, School of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
  • 8Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia,Illinois 60510, USA
  • 9University of Sussex, Sussex, United Kingdom
  • 10U.S. Naval Observatory,Flagstaff Station, Flagstaff, Arizona 86002-1149, USA
  • 11Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
  • 12Institute of Astronomy, Cambrdige University, Cambridge, United Kingdom
  • 13Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
  • 14Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
  • 15Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
  • 16Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

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Vol. 71, Iss. 10 — 15 May 2005

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