The most recent results from the Boomerang , Maxima , DASI , CBI and VSA CMB experiments significantly increase the case for accelerated expansion in the early universe ( the inflationary paradigm ) and at the current epoch ( dark energy dominance ) .
This is especially so when combined with data on high redshift supernovae ( SN1 ) and large scale structure ( LSS ) , encoding information from local cluster abundances , galaxy clustering , and gravitational lensing .
There are “ 7 pillars of Inflation ” that can be shown with the CMB probe , and at least 5 , and possibly 6 , of these have already been demonstrated in the CMB data : ( 1 ) the effects of a large scale gravitational potential , demonstrated with COBE/DMR in 1992-96 ; ( 2 ) acoustic peaks/dips in the angular power spectrum of the radiation , which tell about the geometry of the Universe , with the large first peak convincingly shown with Boomerang and Maxima data in 2000 , a multiple peak/dip pattern shown in data from Boomerang and DASI ( 2nd , 3rd peaks , first and 2nd dips in 2001 ) and from CBI ( 2nd , 3rd , 4th , 5th peaks , 3rd , 4th dips at 1-sigma in 2002 ) ; ( 3 ) damping due to shear viscosity and the width of the region over which hydrogen recombination occurred when the universe was 400000 years old ( CBI 2002 ) ; ( 4 ) the primary anisotropies should have a Gaussian distribution ( be maximally random ) in almost all inflationary models , the best data on this coming from Boomerang ; ( 5 ) secondary anisotropies associated with nonlinear phenomena subsequent to 400000 years , which must be there and may have been detected by CBI and another experiment , BIMA .
Showing the 5 “ pillars ” involves detailed confrontation of the experimental data with theory ; e.g. , ( 5 ) compares the CBI data with predictions from two of the largest cosmological hydrodynamics simulations ever done .
DASI , Boomerang and CBI in 2002 , AMiBA in 2003 , and many other experiments have the sensitivity to demonstrate the next pillar , ( 6 ) polarization , which must be there at the \sim 7 \% level .
A broad-band DASI detection consistent with inflation models was just reported .
A 7th pillar , anisotropies induced by gravity wave quantum noise , could be too small to detect .
A minimal inflation parameter set , \ { \omega _ { b } , \omega _ { cdm } , \Omega _ { tot } , \Omega _ { Q } ,w _ { Q } ,n _ { s } , \tau _ { C } , \sigma _ % { 8 } \ } , is used to illustrate the power of the current data .
After marginalizing over the other cosmic and experimental variables , we find the current CMB+LSS+SN1 data give \Omega _ { tot } = 1.00 ^ { + .07 } _ { - .03 } , consistent with ( non-baroque ) inflation theory .
Restricting to \Omega _ { tot } = 1 , we find a nearly scale invariant spectrum , n _ { s } = 0.97 ^ { + .08 } _ { - .05 } .
The CDM density , \omega _ { cdm } = \Omega _ { cdm } { h } ^ { 2 } = .12 ^ { + .01 } _ { - .01 } , and baryon density , \omega _ { b } \equiv \Omega _ { b } { h } ^ { 2 } = .022 ^ { + .003 } _ { - .002 } , are in the expected range .
( The Big Bang nucleosynthesis estimate is 0.019 \pm 0.002 . )
Substantial dark ( unclustered ) energy is inferred , \Omega _ { Q } \approx 0.68 \pm 0.05 , and CMB+LSS \Omega _ { Q } values are compatible with the independent SN1 estimates .
The dark energy equation of state , crudely parameterized by a quintessence-field pressure-to-density ratio w _ { Q } , is not well determined by CMB+LSS ( w _ { Q } < -0.4 at 95 % CL ) , but when combined with SN1 the resulting w _ { Q } < -0.7 limit is quite consistent with the w _ { Q } = -1 cosmological constant case .