The overall cosmological parameter tension between the Atacama Cosmology Telescope 2020 (ACT) and Planck 2018 data within the concordance cosmological model is quantified using the suspiciousness statistic to be 2.6σ. Between ACT and the South Pole Telescope (SPT) we find a tension of 2.4σ, and 2.8σ between ACT and Planck+SPT combined. While it is unclear whether the tension is caused by statistical fluctuations, systematic effects or new physics, caution should be exercised in combining these cosmic microwave background datasets in the context of the ΛCDM standard model of the universe.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2007.08496,
title = {Quantifying the global parameter tensions between ACT, SPT and Planck},
author = {Will Handley and Pablo Lemos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2007.08496},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
6 Pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Prepared for submission to PRL. v2: updated pre-submission with additional analysis and makes clearer the relationship with the ACT DR4 analysis. v3. Additional analysis added for exact suspiciousness calculation. v4. Updates to text and references post PRD review