Distance Priors from Planck and Dark Energy Constraints from Current Data

TL;DR

This paper derives and analyzes distance priors from Planck data to assess their impact on dark energy constraints, finding tighter priors but limited improvement in constraints due to data tensions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed derivation of Planck distance priors and compares their impact on dark energy constraints with WMAP9 priors.

Findings

Planck distance priors are significantly tighter than WMAP9.

Adding Planck priors does not significantly improve dark energy constraints.

Planck data favor higher matter density and lower Hubble constant, causing tension with other data.

Abstract

We derive distance priors from Planck first data release, and examine their impact on dark energy constraints from current observational data. We give the mean values and covariance matrix of {R, l_a, \Omega_b h^2, n_s}, which give an efficient summary of Planck data. The CMB shift parameters are R=\sqrt{\Omega_m H_0^2}\,r(z_*), and l_a=\pi r(z_*)/r_s(z_*), where z_* is the redshift at the last scattering surface, and r(z_*) and r_s(z_*) denote our comoving distance to z_* and sound horizon at z_* respectively. We find that Planck distance priors are significantly tighter than those from WMAP9. However, adding Planck distance priors does not lead to significantly improved dark energy constraints using current data, compared to adding WMAP9 distance priors. This is because Planck data appear to favor a higher matter density and lower Hubble constant, in tension with most of the other current cosmological data sets. Adding Planck distance priors to current data leads to a marginal inconsistency with a cosmological constant in a flat universe.