CAMB v2: cosmological power spectra for high-precision surveys
astro-ph.CO
Submitted: 2026-07-16
Updated: 2026-07-16
Comments: 25 pages, 4 figures. Code available at https://github.com/cmbant/camb
Code: https://github.com/cmbant/camb
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale-structure surveys require theoretical power spectra with numerical errors well below their observational uncertainties over the scales that
Terminology
Abstract
Upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale-structure surveys require theoretical power spectra with numerical errors well below their observational uncertainties over the scales that carry most of the constraining power. We describe a substantial update to CAMB designed to provide fast, high-precision predictions for two key outputs: the lensed CMB and matter power spectra. The central development is a new treatment of the hyperspherical Bessel functions used for line-of-sight integration in non-flat cosmologies. A leading-order Olver construction maps the curved radial equation onto the flat spherical Bessel equation by matching their actions through the turning point. The resulting approximation is exact in the flat limit, remains smooth through the turning point, and reduces near flatness to a simple rescaling of the flat Bessel argument and amplitude. We also describe updated integrators, a recalibrated fast recombination model, stabilized parameterized post-Friedmann dark-energy evolution, and improvements to CMB lensing accuracy. Numerical convergence is assessed by comparing unboosted default results against more converged calculations. The defaults meet conservative 10-3 pointwise convergence targets over the main lensed-CMB and quasi-linear matter-power ranges relevant for future surveys. Errors measured in typical runs are substantially smaller than this. We also describe the convention dependence of the nominally linear matter power spectrum when a homogeneous calculation attempts to represent the effects of reionization heating. Essentially all of the new algorithms and code were developed with LLMs or AI agents under human supervision.
Sources
- Efficient Computation of CMB anisotropies in closed FRW models
- The Cosmic Linear Anisotropy Solving System (CLASS) II: Approximation schemes
- A Line of Sight Approach to Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies
- COSMICS: Cosmological Initial Conditions and Microwave Anisotropy Codes
- Integral Solution for the Microwave Background Anisotropies in Non-fl at Universes
- Microwave background polarization in cosmological models
- CMB power spectrum parameter degeneracies in the era of precision cosmology
- The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
- Weak Gravitational Lensing of the CMB
- Computation of hyperspherical Bessel functions
- Fast and accurate CMB computations in non-flat FLRW universes
- Photons and Baryons before Atoms: Improving the Tight-Coupling Approximation
- Using BBN in cosmological parameter extraction from CMB: a forecast for Planck
- PArthENoPE: Public Algorithm Evaluating the Nucleosynthesis of Primordial Elements
- PArthENoPE reloaded
- Precision big bang nucleosynthesis with improved Helium-4 predictions
- Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters
- A new tension in the cosmological model from primordial deuterium?
- Towards a complete treatment of the cosmological recombination problem
- Ultrafast effective multi-level atom method for primordial hydrogen recombination
Related papers
- Angular clustering and bias of photometric quasars in the Kilo-Degree Survey Data Release 4
- A Novel kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Estimator for Electron-Electron Correlations
- Magnetic fields at the dawn of structure formation I. The CARLA J1510+5958 proto-cluster
- Dark Energy Survey Year 6 Results: Weak Lensing and Galaxy Clustering Cosmological Analysis Framework
- Exploring the Impact of Systematic Bias in Type Ia Supernova Cosmology Across Diverse Dark Energy Parametrizations
- Non-Gaussian Galaxy Stochasticity and the Noise-Field Formulation