A Comparison of Cosmological Parameters Determined from CMB Temperature
  Power Spectra from the South Pole Telescope and the Planck Satellite
  The Planck cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature data are best fit
with a LCDM model that is in mild tension with constraints from other
cosmological probes. The South Pole Telescope (SPT) 2540 $\text{deg}^2$ SPT-SZ
survey offers measurements on sub-degree angular scales (multipoles $650 \leq
\ell \leq 2500$) with sufficient precision to use as an independent check of
the Planck data. Here we build on the recent joint analysis of the SPT-SZ and
Planck data in \citet{hou17} by comparing LCDM parameter estimates using the
temperature power spectrum from both data sets in the SPT-SZ survey region. We
also restrict the multipole range used in parameter fitting to focus on modes
measured well by both SPT and Planck, thereby greatly reducing sample variance
as a driver of parameter differences and creating a stringent test for
systematic errors. We find no evidence of systematic errors from such tests.
When we expand the maximum multipole of SPT data used, we see low-significance
shifts in the angular scale of the sound horizon and the physical baryon and
cold dark matter densities, with a resulting trend to higher Hubble constant.
When we compare SPT and Planck data on the SPT-SZ sky patch to Planck full-sky
data but keep the multipole range restricted, we find differences in the
parameters $n_s$ and $A_se^{-2\tau}$. We perform further checks, investigating
instrumental effects and modeling assumptions, and we find no evidence that the
effects investigated are responsible for any of the parameter shifts. Taken
together, these tests reveal no evidence for systematic errors in SPT or Planck
data in the overlapping sky coverage and multipole range and, at most, weak
evidence for a breakdown of LCDM or systematic errors influencing either the
Planck data outside the SPT-SZ survey area or the SPT data at $\ell >2000$.
