The discrepancy between early-Universe inferences and direct measurements of the Hubble constant, known as the Hubble tension, recently became a pressing subject in high precision cosmology. As a result, a large variety of theoretical models have been proposed to relieve this tension. In this work we analyze a conformally-coupled modified gravity (CCMG) model of an evolving gravitational constant due to the coupling of a scalar field to the Ricci scalar, which becomes active around matter-radiation equality, as required for solutions to the Hubble tension based on increasing the sound horizon at recombination. The model is theoretically advantageous as it has only one free parameter in addition to the baseline $Λ$CDM ones. Inspired by similar recent analyses of so-called early-dark-energy models, we constrain the CCMG model using a combination of early and late-Universe cosmological datasets. In addition to the Planck 2018 cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies and weak lensing measurements, baryon acoustic oscillations and the Supernova H0 for the Equation of State datasets, we also use large-scale structure (LSS) datasets such as the Dark Energy Survey year 1 and the full-shape power spectrum likelihood from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey, including its recent analysis using effective field theory, to check the effect of the CCMG model on the (milder) S8 tension between the CMB and LSS. We find that the CCMG model can slightly relax the Hubble tension, with $H_0 = 69.6 \pm 1.6$ km/s/Mpc at 95% CL, while barely affecting the S8 tension. However, current data does not exhibit strong preference for CCMG over the standard cosmological model. Lastly, we show that the planned CMB-S4 experiment will have the sensitivity required to distinguish between the CCMG model and the more general class of models involving an evolving gravitational constant.
We revisit D-term inflation with the bounds of the cosmic string tension from gravitational wave observations and consider the possible deviation of the spectral index compared with the $Λ$CDM model in light of prerecombination resolutions of the Hubble tension. D-term inflation requires very small coupling constants under these constraints. We show that natural coupling constants ($g=λ=0.1$) can be achieved in the case of D-term inflation on the brane.
A new component added to the standard model of cosmology that behaves like a cosmological constant at early times and then dilutes away as radiation or faster can resolve the Hubble tension. We show that a rolling axion coupled to a non-Abelian gauge group exhibits the behavior of such an extra component at the background level and can present a natural particle-physics model solution to the Hubble tension. We compare the contribution of this bottom-up model to the phenomenological fluid approximation and determine that CMB observables sensitive only to the background evolution of the Universe…
A current problem within the ΛCDM framework is the tension between late and early time measurements of the Hubble parameter today, H0. We entertain the possibility that dark energy modeled as multiple interacting axion-like-particle species can alleviate the current Hubble tension. We then test these parameters against the milder tension between the CMB and large scale structure (LSS) observations of σ8 to ensure that these models do not exacerbate the tension. We find that there exist parameter spaces for models of two and three axion-like-particles which can potentially alleviate the Hubble …
We consider the inverse Seesaw scenario for neutrino masses with the approximate Lepton number symmetry broken dynamically by a scalar with Lepton number two. We show that the Majoron associated to the spontaneous symmetry breaking can alleviate the Hubble tension through its contribution to $ΔN_\text{eff}$ and late decays to neutrinos. Among the additional fermionic states required for realizing the inverse Seesaw mechanism, sterile neutrinos at the keV-MeV scale can account for all the dark matter component of the Universe if produced via freeze-in from the decays of heavier degrees of freed…
We show that the energy density of the superhorizon modes released in a non-Bunch-Davies vacuum can be arbitrarily large during inflation and it decreases like ln(a)/a^4 in the subsequent radiation dominated era. This may constitute a dark radiation component which can sufficiently alter the early cosmological evolution to alleviate the Hubble tension.
For a standard $Λ$CDM universe with a power-law primordial power spectrum, the discrepancy between early- and late-universe measurements of the Hubble constant continued to grow and recently reached $5.3σ$. During inflation, local features in the inflationary potential often lead to band-limited features in the primordial power spectrum, hence breaking the power-law assumption in the derivation of the Hubble tension. We investigate whether such inflationary "glitches" can ease the Hubble tension. The recently released \emph{Planck} temperature and polarization data and the 2019 SH0ES+H0LiCOW j…
Self-interaction among the neutrinos in the early Universe has been proposed as a solution to the Hubble tension, a discrepancy between the measured values of the Hubble constant from CMB and low-redshift data. However, flavor-universal neutrino self-interaction is highly constrained by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and other laboratory experiments such as, tau and K-meson decay, double-neutrino beta decay etc. We study the cosmology when only one or two neutrino states are self-interacting. Such flavor-specific interactions are less constrained by the laboratory experiments. Lastly, we address the…
The inconsistent Hubble constant values derived from cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations and from local distance-ladder measurements may suggest new physics beyond the standard $Λ$CDM paradigm. It has been found in earlier works that, at least phenomenologically, non-standard recombination histories can reduce the $\gtrsim 4σ$ Hubble tension to $\sim 2σ$. Following this path, we vary physical and phenomenological parameters in RECFAST, the standard code to compute ionization history of the universe, to explore possible physics beyond standard recombination. We find that the CMB cons…
We present here a lightning review of the status of the Hubble-Lemaître tension. Instead of discussing the broad array of proposed solutions found in the literature, we focus here on the assumptions made to measure the Hubble constant from cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillation data on the one hand, and from a cepheid-calibrated distance ladder on the other hand. From this discussion, we extract two important lessons that inform which kind of physics-based solutions could plausibly resolve this tension.
An early dark energy component consisting of a cosmic pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson has been recently proposed to resolve the Hubble tension -- the four-sigma discrepancy between precision measurements of the expansion rate of the universe. Here we point out that such an axion-like component may be expected to couple to electromagnetism by a Chern-Simons term, and will thereby induce an anisotropic cosmic birefringence signal in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). We show that observations of the rotation-angle power spectrum and cross-correlation with CMB temperature ani…
Hubble tension is routinely presented as a mismatch between the Hubble constant $H_0$ determined locally and a value inferred from the flat $Λ$CDM cosmology. In essence, the tension boils down to a disagreement between two numbers. Here, assuming the tension is cosmological in origin, we predict that within flat $Λ$CDM there should be other inferred values of $H_0$, and that a "running of $H_0$ with redshift" can be expected. These additional determinations of $H_0$ may be traced to a difference between the effective equation of state (EoS) of the Universe within the Friedmann-Lemaître-Roberts…
We show how a modified Friedmann equation, originating from a model of the universe built from a certain $W_3$ algebra, has the potential to explain the difference between the Hubble constants extracted from CMB data and from supernova data.
We consider a low redshift $(z<0.7)$ cosmological dataset comprising megamasers, cosmic chronometers, type Ia SNe and BAO, which we bin according to their redshift. For each bin, we read the value of $H_0$ by fitting directly to the flat $Λ$CDM model. Doing so, we find that $H_0$ descends with redshift, allowing one to fit a line with a \textit{non-zero} slope of statistical significance $2.1 \, σ$. Our analysis rests on the use of cosmic chronometers to break a degeneracy in BAO data and it will be imperative to revisit this feature as data improves. Nevertheless, our results provide the firs…
It has very recently been claimed that the neutrino-assisted early dark energy model -- a promising resolution of the Hubble tension that can ameliorate the theoretical fine-tuning and coincidence problems that plague other theories -- does not provide natural or cosmologically interesting results. In this short paper, we show that these conclusions are incorrect for three reasons. First, we identify errors in the calculations. Second, we dispute the definition in of what constitutes an 'interesting' and 'natural' model. Finally, we demonstrate that the conclusions of were arrived at without f…
Allowing for a nonvanishing spin tensor for cold dark matter ($ω_{\mathrm{DM}}=0$) has the consequence of giving rise to an effective $\mathrm{FLRW}$ dynamics with a small negative barotropic constant for an effective dark matter density ($-1/3<ω_{\mathrm{eff}}\leq0$). This turns out to solve the Hubble parameter tension in a straightforward way.
The value of Hubble constant inferred from Planck measurements of anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background is at $4.4σ$ tension with direct astronomical measurements at low redshifts. Very recently, it has been conjectured that this discrepancy may be reconciled if a small fraction of the dark matter is described by three mutually orthogonal vector fields of the same mass. We study the thermal description of this model and use the observationally-inferred primordial fractions of baryonic mass in $^4{\rm He}$ to constrain its phase space. We show that while the sterile vector fields may …
We explore the possibility of using a gigaparsec-scale local void to reconcile the Hubble tension. Such a gigaparsec-scale void can be produced by multi-stream inflation where different parts of the observable universe follow different inflationary trajectories. The impact of such a void for cosmological observations is studied, especially those involving supernovae, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect. As a benchmark model, a 1.7Gpc scale with boundary width 0.7Gpc and density contrast -0.14 may ease the Hubble tension.
Decaying cold dark matter (CDM) has been considered as a mechanism to tackle the tensions in the Hubble expansion rate and the clustering of matter. However, polarization measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) severely constrain the fraction of dark matter decaying before recombination, and lensing of the CMB anisotropies by large-scale structure set strong constraints on dark matter decaying after recombination. Together, these constraints make an explanation of the Hubble tension in terms of decaying dark matter unlikely. In response to this situation, we investigate whether a…
We present a dark sector model addressing both the Hubble tension and the core-cusp problem. The model is based on a hidden Abelian gauge symmetry group with some chiral fermions required by the anomaly cancellation conditions, producing a candidate for the decaying fermion dark matter as a solution to the Hubble tension. Moreover, the sub-keV mass regime and the thermal history of the dark sector help the dark matter candidate resolve the core-cusp problem occurring in the standard $Λ$CDM cosmology.
The mismatch between the locally measured expansion rate of the universe and the one inferred from the cosmic microwave background measurements by Planck in the context of the standard $Λ$CDM, known as the Hubble tension, has become one of the most pressing problems in cosmology. A large number of amendments to the $Λ$CDM model have been proposed in order to solve this tension. Many of them introduce new physics, such as early dark energy, modifications of the standard model neutrino sector, extra radiation, primordial magnetic fields or varying fundamental constants, with the aim of reducing …
The $Λ$CDM model provides a good fit to most astronomical observations but harbors large areas of phenomenology and ignorance. With the improvements in the precision and number of observations, discrepancies between key cosmological parameters of this model have emerged. Among them, the most notable tension is the 4$σ$ to 6$σ$ deviation between the Hubble constant ($H_{0}$) estimations measured by the local distance ladder and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement. In this review, we revisit the $H_{0}$ tension based on the latest research and sort out evidence from solutions to th…
We are at an interesting juncture in cosmology. With new methods and technology, the accuracy in measurement of the Hubble constant has vastly improved, but a recent tension has arisen that is either signaling new physics or as-yet unrecognized uncertainties.
As observations of the Hubble parameter from both early and late sources have improved, the tension between these has increased to be well above the 5$σ$ threshold. Given this, the need for an explanation of such a tension has grown. In this paper, we explore a set of 7 assumptions, and show that, in order to alleviate the Hubble tension, a model needs to break at least one of these 7, providing a quick and easy to apply check for new model proposals. We also use this framework to make a rough categorisation of current proposed models, and show the existence of at least one under-explored aven…
The recent measurements of the cosmological parameter $H_0$ from the direct local observations and the inferred value from the Cosmic Microwave Background show $\sim 4 σ$ discrepancy. This may indicate new physics beyond the standard $Λ$CDM. We investigate the keV gravitino dark matter that has a small fraction of non-thermal component (e.g. from the late decay of NLSP bino) under various cosmological constraints. We find such a scenario is highly predictive and can be tested by searching for the dilepton plus missing energy events at the LHC. Besides, we also discuss its implication for Hubbl…
Local measurements of the Hubble constant currently disagree with the high-precision value that is inferred from the CMB under the assumption of a $Λ$CDM cosmology. The significance of this tension clearly motivates studying extensions of the standard cosmological model capable of addressing this outstanding issue. Broadly speaking, models that have been successful in reducing the the tension between the CMB and local measurements (without introducing additional tension in other datasets) require an additional component of the energy density in the Universe at a time close to recombination. In…
Taking advantage of Gaussian process (GP), we obtain an improved estimate of the Hubble constant, $H_0=70.41\pm1.58$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, using Hubble parameter [$H(z)$] from cosmic chronometers (CCH) and expansion rate function [$E(z)$], extracted from type Ia supernovae, data. We also use CCH data, including the ones with full covariance matrix, and $E(z)$ data to obtain a determination of $H_0=72.34_{-1.92}^{+1.90}$ km s$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$, which implies that the involvement of full covariance matrix results in higher values and uncertainties of $H_0$. These results are higher than those …
New interactions of neutrinos can stop them from free streaming even after the weak interaction freeze-out. This results in a phase shift in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) acoustic peaks which can alleviate the Hubble tension. In addition, the perturbations in neutrinos do not decay away on horizon entry and contribute to metric perturbation enhancing the matter power spectrum. We demonstrate that this acoustic phase shift can be achieved using new interactions of standard left-handed neutrinos with dark matter without changing the number of effective relativistic degrees of freedom. Us…
We present a model in which the question about a nature of the dark energy and the recently raised Hubble tension can be addressed at once. We consider the electroweak axion in the minimal supersymmetric standard model where the axion energy density is identified with the observed dark energy. Along with this, imposing a gauged $Z_{10}$ symmetry makes it possible to have a gravitino dark matter whose mass amounts to $\sim\mathcal{O}(1)\,\,{\rm GeV}$. We find that the gravitino with mass $\sim\mathcal{O}(1)\,\,{\rm GeV}$ can be a good candidate of a decaying dark matter of which decay after rec…
We study the fit of cosmological models with two additional free parameters $N_\mathrm{eff}$ and $ξ_e$ in addition to the parameters of $Λ$CDM. We introduce extra radiation components such as hot axions or sterile neutrinos in addition to the energy density of neutrinos with large neutrino degeneracy. Then, a larger $N_\mathrm{eff}$ is allowed without spoiling Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), as positive neutrino degeneracy $ξ_e$ could improve BBN fit. By analysing the data from Planck, baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO), BBN and type-Ia supernovae (SNeIa), it can be seen that the Hubble tension…
The Hubble tension that the standard $Λ$CDM model is suffering from can be resolved with pre-recombination early dark energy. We present the first constraint on the tensor-to-scalar ratio $r$ in corresponding Hubble-tension-free cosmologies using the most recent BICEP/Keck cosmic microwave background (CMB) B-mode polarization data. We find, combining BICEP/Keck with Planck18 CMB and baryon acoustic oscillation data, that the models with larger Hubble constant $H_0$ will have tighter upper bound on $r$, and resolution $H_0\sim73$ km/s/Mpc of the Hubble tension tightens the upper bound to $r<0.0…
In the recently suggested non-standard, quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination, the presence of neighboring proton increases the ionization energy and decreases the final recombination rate of hydrogen. Both these two effects can lead to the larger value of the present expansion rate of the universe obtained using CMB data and standard cosmological model, and thus are able to reduce or resolve the Hubble tension problem. We note also that due to the quasi-molecular channel the recombination began earlier, what potentially can solve the sigma-eight tension, since the CMB-predicted value of …
The tension between early and late Universe probes of the Hubble constant has motivated various new FLRW cosmologies. Here, we reanalyse the Hubble tension with a recent age of the Universe constraint. This allows us to restrict attention to matter and a dark energy sector that we treat without assuming a specific model. Assuming analyticity of the Hubble parameter $H(z)$, and a generic low redshift modification to flat $Λ$CDM, we find that low redshift data ($z \lesssim 2.5$) and well-motivated priors only permit a dark energy sector close to the cosmological constant $Λ$. This restriction ru…
Although both early and late-time modifications of the $Λ$CDM model have been proposed to address the Hubble tension, compelling arguments suggest that for a solution to be successful it needs to modify the expansion history of the universe prior to recombination. This greatly increases the importance of precise CMB observations, and in this letter we make the argument for CMB spectral distortions, highlighting their potential role in constraining models that introduce significant shifts in the standard $Λ$CDM parameters, such as the scalar spectral index, in attempt to solve the Hubble tensio…
If a fraction of the dark matter is unstable and decays into dark radiation at around the time of matter-radiation equality, it could impact the expansion history of the universe in a way that helps to ameliorate the long-standing tension between the locally measured value of the Hubble constant and the value inferred from measurements of the cosmic microwave background and baryon acoustic oscillations (assuming standard $Λ$CDM cosmology). If this component of decaying dark matter is cold, however, it will modify the evolution of the gravitational potentials, leading to inconsistencies with th…
We present a kinetically mixed dark sector (KMIX) model to address the Hubble and $S_8$ tensions. Inspired from string theory, our model includes two fields: an axion, which plays a role similar to the scalar field in early dark energy models, and a dilaton. This theory differs from other axio-dilaton models aimed at the Hubble tension in that there is necessarily kinetic mixing between the two fields which allows for efficient energy transfer from the axion into the dilaton which has $w\approx1$. As a direct consequence of these dynamics, we find the model does not need to resort to a fine-tu…
The Hubble parameter inferred from cosmic microwave background observations is consistently lower than that from local measurements, which could hint towards new physics. Solutions to the Hubble tension typically require a sizable amount of extra radiation $ΔN^{}_{\rm eff}$ during recombination. However, the amount of $ΔN^{}_{\rm eff}$ in the early Universe is unavoidably constrained by Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN), which causes problems for such solutions. We present a possibility to evade this problem by introducing neutrino self-interactions via a simple Majoron-like coupling. The scalar …
We present a simple extension of the Standard Model that leads to renormalizable long-range vector-mediated neutrino self-interactions. This model can resolve the Hubble tension by delaying the onset of neutrino free-streaming during recombination, without conflicting with other measurements. The extended gauge, scalar and neutrino sectors lead to observable signatures, including invisible Higgs and $Z$ decays, thereby relating the Hubble tension to precision measurements at the LHC and future colliders. The model has a new neutrinophilic gauge boson with $m_{Z'}\sim\mathcal{O}(10~\mathrm{eV})…
The Wess Zumino Dark Radiation (WZDR) model first proposed in arXiv:2111.00014 shows great promise as a well-motivated simple explanation of the Hubble tension between local and CMB-based measurements. In this work we investigate the assumptions made in the original proposal and confront the model with additional independent data sets. We show that the original assumptions can have an impact on the overall results but are usually well motivated. We further demonstrate that the preference for negative $Ω_k$ remains at a similar level as for the $Λ$CDM model, while the $A_L$ tension is slightly …
Small-scale inhomogeneities in the baryon density around recombination have been proposed as a solution to the tension between local and global determinations of the Hubble constant. These baryon clumping models make distinct predictions for the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectra on small angular scales. We use recent data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope to test these predictions. No evidence for baryon clumping is found, assuming a range of parameterizations for time-independent baryon density probability distribution functions. The inferred Hubble constant remains in s…
Technische Universität München（慕尼黑工业大学）；Nordita, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University（诺迪塔，皇家理工学院和斯德哥尔摩大学）；University of Southern Denmark（南丹麦大学）
It is shown, from the two independent approaches of McCrea-Milne and of Zeldovich, that one can fully recover the set equations corresponding to the relativistic equations of the expanding universe of Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker geometry. Although similar, the Newtonian and relativistic set of equations have a principal difference in the content and hence define two flows, local and global ones, thus naturally exposing the Hubble tension at the presence of the cosmological constant Λ. From this, we obtain absolute constraints on the lower and upper values for the local Hubble parameter…
Local measurements of the Hubble parameter obtained from the distance ladder at low redshift are in tension with global values inferred from cosmological standard rulers. A key role in the tension is played by the assumptions on the cosmological history, in particular on the origin of dark energy. Here we consider a scenario where dark energy originates from the amplification of quantum fluctuations of a light field in inflation. We show that spatial correlations inherited from inflationary quantum fluctuations can reduce the Hubble tension down to one standard deviation, thus relieving the pr…
Double the axions, half the tension: multi-field early dark energy eases the Hubble tension
University of Trento（特伦托大学）；Université de Montpellier（蒙彼利埃大学）；Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA)-INFN（特伦托基础物理与应用研究所（TIFPA）-意大利国家核物理研究所）
