Cosmological impact of microwave background temperature measurements

Abstract

The cosmic microwave background temperature is a cornerstone astrophysical observable. Its present value is tightly constrained, but its redshift dependence, which can now be determined until redshift z∼6.34, is also an important probe of fundamental cosmology. We show that its constraining power is now comparable to that of other background cosmology probes, including Type Ia supernovae and Hubble parameter measurements. We illustrate this with three models, each based on a different conceptual paradigm, which aim to explain the recent acceleration of the universe. We find that for parametric extension of ΛCDM the combination of temperature and cosmological data significantly improves constraints on the model parameters, while for alternative models without a ΛCDM limit this data combination rules them out.