Assessing tension metrics with Dark Energy Survey and Planck data
  Quantifying tensions -- inconsistencies amongst measurements of cosmological
parameters by different experiments -- has emerged as a crucial part of modern
cosmological data analysis. Statistically-significant tensions between two
experiments or cosmological probes may indicate new physics extending beyond
the standard cosmological model and need to be promptly identified. We apply
several tension estimators proposed in the literature to the Dark Energy Survey
(DES) large-scale structure measurement and Planck cosmic microwave background
data. We first evaluate the responsiveness of these metrics to an input tension
artificially introduced between the two, using synthetic DES data. We then
apply the metrics to the comparison of Planck and actual DES Year 1 data. We
find that the parameter differences, Eigentension, and Suspiciousness metrics
all yield similar results on both simulated and real data, while the Bayes
ratio is inconsistent with the rest due to its dependence on the prior volume.
Using these metrics, we calculate the tension between DES Year 1 $3\times 2$pt
and Planck, finding the surveys to be in $\sim 2.3\sigma$ tension under the
$\Lambda$CDM paradigm. This suite of metrics provides a toolset for robustly
testing tensions in the DES Year 3 data and beyond.
