Revised cosmological parameters after BICEP 2 and BOSS

Abstract

Estimation of parameters of the 'standard' model of cosmology have dramatically improved over past few decades due to increasingly exquisite measurements made by Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments. Recent data from Planck matches well with the minimal ΛCDM model. A likelihood analysis using Planck, WMAP and a selection of high resolution experiments (highL), tensor to scalar ratio r_0.002 is found to be <0.11 when dn_s/d ln k = 0. Planck also imposes an upper bound on neutrino mass ∑ m_ν<0.23 eV using Planck + WMAP + highL + BAO likelihood. However, recently results from BICEP 2 claims the detection of r= 0.2^+0.07_-0.05 from polarization spectra. Further, results from SDSS-III BOSS large scale galaxy survey constrains the total neutrino mass to ∑ m_ν=0.36 ± 0.10 eV . It is important to study the consequences of these new measurements on other cosmological parameters. In this paper we assess the revised constraints on cosmological parameters in light of these two measurements that are in some tension with the constraints from Planck.