Constraints on coupled dark energy using CMB data from WMAP and SPT
  We consider the case of a coupling in the dark cosmological sector, where a
dark energy scalar field modifies the gravitational attraction between dark
matter particles. We find that the strength of the coupling {\beta} is
constrained using current Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data, including
WMAP7 and SPT, to be less than 0.063 (0.11) at 68% (95%) confidence level.
Further, we consider the additional effect of the CMB-lensing amplitude,
curvature, effective number of relativistic species and massive neutrinos and
show that the bound from current data on {\beta} is already strong enough to be
rather stable with respect to any of these variables. The strongest effect is
obtained when we allow for massive neutrinos, in which case the bound becomes
slightly weaker, {\beta} < 0.084(0.14). A larger value of the effective number
of relativistic degrees of freedom favors larger couplings between dark matter
and dark energy as well as values of the spectral index closer to 1. Adding the
present constraints on the Hubble constant, as well as from baryon acoustic
oscillations and supernovae Ia, we find {\beta} < 0.050(0.074). In this case we
also find an interesting likelihood peak for {\beta} = 0.041 (still compatible
with 0 at 1{\sigma}). This peak comes mostly from a slight difference between
the Hubble parameter HST result and the WMAP7+SPT best fit. Finally, we show
that forecasts of Planck+SPT mock data can pin down the coupling to a precision
of better than 1% and detect whether the marginal peak we find at small non
zero coupling is a real effect.
