Observational constraints and cosmological parameters

Abstract

I discuss the extraction of cosmological parameter constraints from the recent WMAP 3-year data, both on its own and in combination with other data. The large degeneracies in the first year data can be largely broken with the third year data, giving much better parameter constraints from WMAP alone. The polarization constraint on the optical depth is crucial to obtain the main results, including n_s < 1 in basic six-parameter models. Almost identical constraints can also be obtained using only temperature data with a prior on the optical depth. I discuss the modelling of secondaries when extracting parameter constraints, and show that the effect of CMB lensing is about as important as SZ and slightly increases the inferred value of the spectral index. Constraints on correlated matter isocurvature modes are not radically better than before, and the data is consistent with a purely adiabatic spectrum. Combining WMAP 3-year data with data from the Lyman-alpha forest suggests somewhat higher values for sigma_8 than from WMAP alone.