CFHTLenS: combined probe cosmological model comparison using 2D weak gravitational lensing

We present cosmological constraints from 2D weak gravitational lensing by the large-scale structure in the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) which spans 154 deg^2 in five optical bands. Using accurate photometric redshifts and measured shapes for 4.2 million galaxies between redshifts of 0.2 and 1.3, we compute the 2D cosmic shear correlation function over angular scales ranging between 0.8 and 350 arcmin. Using non-linear models of the dark-matter power spectrum, we constrain cosmological parameters by exploring the parameter space with Population Monte Carlo sampling. The best constraints from lensing alone are obtained for the small-scale density-fluctuations amplitude σ_8 scaled with the total matter density Ωm. For a flat Λcold dark matter (ΛCDM) model we obtain σ_8(Ω_m/0.27)0.6 = 0.79 ± 0.03. We combine the CFHTLenS data with 7-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP7), baryonic acoustic oscillations (BAO): SDSS-III (BOSS) and a Hubble Space Telescope distance-ladder prior on the Hubble constant to get joint constraints. For a flat ΛCDM model, we find Ω_m = 0.283 ± 0.010 and σ_8 = 0.813 ± 0.014. In the case of a curved wCDM universe, we obtain Ω_m = 0.27 ± 0.03, σ_8 = 0.83 ± 0.04, w0 = −1.10 ± 0.15 and Ω_K = 0.006^(+0.006)_(− 0.004). We calculate the Bayesian evidence to compare flat and curved ΛCDM and dark-energy CDM models. From the combination of all four probes, we find models with curvature to be at moderately disfavoured with respect to the flat case. A simple dark-energy model is indistinguishable from ΛCDM. Our results therefore do not necessitate any deviations from the standard cosmological model