Separating the early universe from the late universe: Cosmological parameter estimation beyond the black box

We present a method for measuring the cosmic matter budget without assumptions about speculative early Universe physics, and for measuring the primordial power spectrum $P_{*}\mathrm{}\left(k\right)\mathrm{}$ nonparametrically, either by combining CMB and LSS information or by using CMB polarization. Our method complements currently fashionable “black box” cosmological parameter analysis, constraining cosmological models in a more physically intuitive fashion by mapping measurements of CMB, weak lensing and cluster abundance into k space, where they can be directly compared with each other and with galaxy and $\mathrm{Ly}\alpha$ forest clustering. Including the new CBI results, we find that CMB measurements of $P\left(k\right)\mathrm{}$ overlap with those from 2dF galaxy clustering by over an order of magnitude in scale, and even overlap with weak lensing measurements. We describe how our approach can be used to raise the ambition level beyond cosmological parameter fitting as data improves, testing rather than assuming the underlying physics.