A combined analysis of 3D Weak Lensing, Lyman-alpha forest and WMAP year three data
Abstract
We present constraints on the amplitude and shape of the matter power spectrum and the density of dark matter within the framework of a standard LambdaCDM model. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to combine independent measurements of the three dimensional weak gravitational lensing shear field by the COSMOS survey, of low and high resolution Ly-alpha forest flux power spectrum by SDSS and LUQAS, and of Cosmic Microwave Background temperature and polarization anisotropies by WMAP. We note good agreement between the amplitude of the matter power spectrum on intermediate and small scales as inferred from Ly-alpha forest and lensing data. The Ly-alpha forest data helps to break the sigma8-Omegam degeneracy characteristic of weak lensing results, yielding sigma8 = 0.876 +- 0.048 for COSMOS plus Ly-alpha SDSS data. This is somewhat larger than the value preferred by the WMAP year three CMB data. Combining all three data sets significantly tightens the constraints on sigma8, the spectral index of primordial density fluctuation ns, a possible running of the spectral index nrun and the matter density Omegam. Assuming no running, the joint constraints for COSMOS, SDSS and WMAP are sigma8 = 0.800 +- 0.023, ns = 0.971 +- 0.011, Omegam = 0.247 +- 0.016 (1-sigma error bars).