Planck 2018 results: VI. Cosmological parameters

Abstract

We present cosmological parameter results from the final full-mission Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies, combining information from the temperature and polarization maps and the lensing reconstruction. Compared to the 2015 results, improved measurements of large-scale polarization allow the reionization optical depth to be measured with higher precision, leading to significant gains in the precision of other correlated parameters. Improved modelling of the small-scale polarization leads to more robust constraints on many parameters, with residual modelling uncertainties estimated to affect them only at the 0.5 sigma level. We find good consistency with the standard spatially-flat 6-parameter Lambda CDM cosmology having a power-law spectrum of adiabatic scalar perturbations (denoted "base Lambda CDM" in this paper), from polarization, temperature, and lensing, separately and in combination. A combined analysis gives dark matter density Omega (c)h(2)=0.120 +/- 0.001, baryon density Omega (b)h(2)=0.0224 +/- 0.0001, scalar spectral index n(s)=0.965 +/- 0.004, and optical depth tau =0.054 +/- 0.007 (in this abstract we quote 68% confidence regions on measured parameters and 95% on upper limits). The angular acoustic scale is measured to 0.03% precision, with 100 theta (*)=1.0411 +/- 0.0003. These results are only weakly dependent on the cosmological model and remain stable, with somewhat increased errors, in many commonly considered extensions. Assuming the base-Lambda CDM cosmology, the inferred (model-dependent) late-Universe parameters are: Hubble constant H-0=(67.4 +/- 0.5) km s(-1) Mpc(-1); matter density parameter Omega (m)=0.315 +/- 0.007; and matter fluctuation amplitude sigma (8)=0.811 +/- 0.006. We find no compelling evidence for extensions to the base-Lambda CDM model. Combining with baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements (and considering single-parameter extensions) we constrain the effective extra relativistic degrees of freedom to be N-eff=2.99 +/- 0.17, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction N-eff=3.046, and find that the neutrino mass is tightly constrained to Sigma m(nu)< 0.12 eV. The CMB spectra continue to prefer higher lensing amplitudes than predicted in base <Lambda>CDM at over 2 sigma, which pulls some parameters that affect the lensing amplitude away from the Lambda CDM model; however, this is not supported by the lensing reconstruction or (in models that also change the background geometry) BAO data. The joint constraint with BAO measurements on spatial curvature is consistent with a flat universe, Omega (K)=0.001 +/- 0.002. Also combining with Type Ia supernovae (SNe), the dark-energy equation of state parameter is measured to be w(0)=-1.03 +/- 0.03, consistent with a cosmological constant. We find no evidence for deviations from a purely power-law primordial spectrum, and combining with data from BAO, BICEP2, and Keck Array data, we place a limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio r(0.002)< 0.06. Standard big-bang nucleosynthesis predictions for the helium and deuterium abundances for the base-<Lambda>CDM cosmology are in excellent agreement with observations. The Planck base-Lambda CDM results are in good agreement with BAO, SNe, and some galaxy lensing observations, but in slight tension with the Dark Energy Survey's combined-probe results including galaxy clustering (which prefers lower fluctuation amplitudes or matter density parameters), and in significant, 3.6 sigma, tension with local measurements of the Hubble constant (which prefer a higher value). Simple model extensions that can partially resolve these tensions are not favoured by the Planck data.