We study the dependence of the location of the cosmic microwave background radiation peaks on the parameters of the generalized Chaplygin gas model, whose equation of state is given by $p=-A/{\rho }^{\alpha },$ where A is a positive constant and $0<\mathrm{}\alpha <~1.$ We find, in particular, that observational data arising from Archeops, BOOMERANG, supernova and high-redshift observations allow constraining significantly the parameter space of the model. Our analysis indicates that the emerging model is clearly distinguishable from the $\alpha =1\mathrm{}$ Chaplygin case and the $\Lambda \mathrm{CDM}$ model.

• Received 25 October 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.67.063003