Cosmological parameter estimation with free-form primordial power spectrum

Constraints on the main cosmological parameters using cosmic microwave background (CMB) or large scale structure data are usually based on the power-law assumption of the primordial power spectrum (PPS). However, in the absence of a preferred model for the early Universe, this raises a concern that current cosmological parameter estimates are strongly prejudiced by the assumed power-law form of PPS. In this paper, for the first time, we perform cosmological parameter estimation allowing the free form of the primordial spectrum. This is in fact the most general approach to estimate cosmological parameters without assuming any particular form for the primordial spectrum. We use a direct reconstruction of the PPS for any point in the cosmological parameter space using the recently modified Richardson-Lucy algorithm; however, other alternative reconstruction methods could be used for this purpose as well. We use WMAP 9 year data in our analysis considering the CMB lensing effect, and we report, for the first time, that the flat spatial universe with no cosmological constant is ruled out by more than a 4 sigma confidence limit without assuming any particular form of the primordial spectrum. This would be probably the most robust indication for dark energy using CMB data alone. Our results on the estimated cosmological parameters show that higher values of the baryonic and matter density and a lower value of the Hubble parameter (in comparison to the estimated values by assuming power-law PPS) is preferred by the data. However, the estimated cosmological parameters by assuming a free form of the PPS have an overlap at 1 sigma confidence level with the estimated values assuming the power-law form of PPS.