Tentative Appraisal of Compatibility of Small-Scale Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Detections in the Context of [ITAL]COBE[/ITAL]-DMR–normalized Open and Flat-Λ Cold Dark Matter Cosmogonies

Abstract

Goodness-of-fit statistics are used to quantitatively establish the compatibility of cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy predictions in a wide range of Differential Microwave Radiometer (DMR) normalized, open and spatially flat Λ, cold dark matter cosmogonies with the set of all presently available small-scale CMB anisotropy detection data. Conclusions regarding model viability depend sensitively on the prescription used to account for the 1 σ uncertainty in the assumed value of the DMR normalization, except for low-density, Ω0 ~ 0.3-0.4, open models, which are compatible with the data for all prescriptions used. While old, large baryon density, low-density, flat-Λ models (t0 15-16 Gyr, ΩB 0.0175 h-2, Ω0 ~ 0.2-0.4) might be incompatible, no model is incompatible with the data for all prescriptions. In fact, some open models seem to fit the data better than should be expected, and this might be an indication that some error bars are mildly overconservative.