The shape of the primordial power spectrum: A last stand before Planck data

Abstract

We present a minimally parametric reconstruction of the primordial power spectrum using the most recent cosmic microwave background and large-scale structure data sets. Our goal is to constrain the shape of the power spectrum while simultaneously avoiding strong theoretical priors and over-fitting of the data. We find no evidence for any departure from a power-law spectral index. We also find that an exact scale-invariant power spectrum is disfavored by the data, but this conclusion is weaker than the corresponding result assuming a theoretically-motivated power-law spectral index prior. The reconstruction shows that better data are crucial to justify the adoption of such a strong theoretical prior observationally. These results can be used to determine the robustness of our present knowledge when compared with forthcoming precision data from Planck.