By focusing on the simple $w\neq-1$ extension to $Λ$CDM, we assess which epoch(s) possibly source the $H_0$-tension. We consider Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data in three possible ways: $i)$ complete CMB data; $ii)$ excluding the $l<30$ temperature and polarization likelihoods; $iii)$ imposing early universe priors, that disentangle early and late time physics. Through a joint analysis with low-redshift supernovae type-Ia and gravitationally lensed time delay datasets, {and neglecting galaxy clustering Baryonic Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) data}, we find that the inclusion of early universe CMB priors is consistent with the local estimate of $H_0$ while excluding the low-$l$+lowE likelihoods mildly relaxes the tension. This is in contrast to joint analyses with the complete CMB data. Our simple implementation of contrasting the effect of different CMB priors on the $H_0$ estimate shows that the early universe information from the CMB data when decoupled from late-times physics could be in agreement with a higher value of $H_0$. {We also find no evidence for the early dark energy model using only the early universe physics within the CMB data. Finally using the BAO data in different redshift ranges to perform inverse distance ladder analysis, we find that the early universe modifications, while being perfectly capable of alleviating the $H_0$-tension when including the BAO galaxy clustering data, would be at odds with the Ly-$α$ BAO data due to the difference in $r_{\rm d}\, vs.\, H_0$ correlation between the two BAO datasets.} We therefore infer and speculate that source for the $H_0$-tension between CMB and local estimates could possibly originate in the modeling of late-time physics within the CMB analysis. This in turn recasts the $H_0$-tension as an effect of late-time physics in CMB, instead of the current early-time CMB vs. local late-time physics perspective.
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 investigate a mechanism for the production of self-interacting dark matter based on WIMP-like messenger state decays into dark matter and dark radiation occurring after recombination. Such a transition leads to a mild relaxation of the Hubble tension, and at the same time may resolve the small-scale structure problems of the $Λ$CDM. We illustrate this mechanism in the Higgs portal dark matter model, which we find to be a promising route.
We study the cosmological effects of two-body dark matter decays where the products of the decay include a massless and a massive particle. We show that if the massive daughter particle is slightly warm it is possible to relieve the tension between distance ladder measurements of the present day Hubble parameter with measurements from the cosmic microwave background.
It has been suggested that late-universe dark matter decays can alleviate the tension between measurements of $H_0$ in the local universe and its value inferred from cosmic microwave background fluctuations. It has been suggested that decaying dark matter can potentially account for this discrepancy as it reshuffles the energy density between matter and radiation and as a result allows dark energy to become dominant at earlier times. In this work, we show that the low multipole amplitude of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy power spectrum severely constrains the feasibility of late-ti…
In supersymmetric axion models, if the gravitino or axino is the lightest SUSY particle (LSP), the other is often the next-to-LSP (NLSP). We investigate the cosmology of such a scenario and point out that the lifetime of the NLSP naturally becomes comparable to the present age of the universe in a viable parameter region. This is a well-motivated example of the so-called decaying dark matter model, which is recently considered as an extension of the $Λ$CDM model to relax some cosmological tensions.
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…
In this work we consider a scenario where the dark energy is a dynamical fluid whose energy density can be transferred to the dark matter via a coupling function proportional to the energy density of the dark energy. In particular, we investigate this model's ability to address the $S_8$ tension and find that against data from Planck, BAO and Pantheon the model 1) can significantly reduce the significance of the tension, 2) does so without exacerbating nor introducing any other tension (such as the $H_0$ tension) and 3) without worsening the fit to the considered data sets with respect to the …
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 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…
It has long been known that the sharpened tension between the observed and inferred values of the Hubble constant $H_0$ can be alleviated if a fraction of dark matter particles of type $χ$ were produced non-thermally in association with photons $γ$ through the decays of a heavy and relatively long-lived state, viz. $X \to χ+ γ$. It was recently proposed that this model can also resolve the longstanding lithium problem if $M= 4$ MeV and $m = 0.04$ keV, where $M$ and $m$ are respectively the masses of $X$ and $χ$. We confront this proposal with experiment and demonstrate that cold dark matter de…
Minimal dark energy models, described by the same number of free parameters of the standard cosmological model with cold dark matter plus a cosmological constant to parameterize the dark energy component, constitute very appealing scenarios which may solve long-standing, pending tensions. On the one hand, they alleviate significantly the tension between cosmological observations and the presence of one sterile neutrino motivated by the short-baseline anomalies: we obtain a $95\%$ CL cosmological bound on the mass of a fully thermalized fourth sterile neutrino ($N_{\rm eff}=4$) equal to $m_s<0.…
In this work, we investigate the dark sector of a supersymmetric axion model, consisting of the late-decaying gravitino/axino dark matter and axion dark radiation. In the early universe, the decay of the scalar superpartner of the axion (saxion) will produce a large amount of entropy. The additional entropy can not only dilute the relic density of the gravitino/axino dark matter to avoid overclosing the universe but also relax the constraint on the reheating temperature $T_{R}$ after inflation. Meanwhile, the axion dark radiation from the saxion decay will increase the effective number of neut…
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 …
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 …
An only early or only late time alteration to $Λ$CDM has been inadequate at resolving both the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions simultaneously; however, a combination of early and late time alterations to $Λ$CDM can provide a solution to both tensions. As an illustration, we examine a combined Early Dark Energy - Decaying Dark Matter model. While early dark energy has the ability to resolve the $H_0$ tension, it leads to a discrepancy in $S_8$ measurements. We show that the addition of decaying dark matter helps resolve the $S_8$ discrepancy that would otherwise be enhanced in an early dark energy mod…
Many models of dark matter have been proposed in attempt to ease the $S_8$ tension between weak lensing and CMB experiments. One such exciting possibility is cannibalistic dark matter (CanDM), which has exothermal number-changing interactions allowing it to stay warm far into its non-relativistic regime. Here we investigate the cosmological implications of CanDM and how it impacts CMB anisotropies and the matter power spectrum, by implementing the model within a linear Einstein-Boltzmann solver. We show that CanDM suppresses the small scale matter power spectrum in a way very similar to light …
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 first result of AMS-02 confirms the positron fraction excess observed by PAMELA, but the spectrum is somewhat softer than that of PAMELA. In the dark matter (DM) interpretation it brings a tension between AMS-02 and Fermi-LAT, which reported an excess of the electron plus positron flux. In this work we point out that the asymmetric cosmic ray from asymmetric dark matter (ADM) decay relaxes the tension. It is found that in the case of two-body decay a bosonic ADM around 2.4 TeV and decaying into $μ^-τ^+$ can significantly improve the fits. Based on the $R-$parity-violating supersymmetry wit…
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…
We constrain and update the bounds on the life-time of a decaying dark matter model with a warm massive daughter particle using the most recent low-redshift probes. We use Supernovae Type-Ia, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the time delay measurements of gravitationally lensed quasars. These data sets are complemented by the early universe priors taken from the Cosmic Microwave background. For the maximum allowed fraction of the relativistic daughter particle, the updated bounds on the life-time are found to be $τ> 9\, \rm{Gyr}$ and $τ>11\,\rm{Gyr}$ at $95\%$ C.L., for the two-body and many-b…
The introduction of Dark Matter-neutrino interactions modifies the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) angular power spectrum at all scales, thus affecting the reconstruction of the cosmological parameters. Such interactions can lead to a slight increase of the value of $H_0$ and a slight decrease of $σ_8$, which can help reduce somewhat the tension between the CMB and lensing or Cepheids datasets. Here we show that it is impossible to solve both tensions simultaneously. While the 2015 Planck temperature and low multipole polarisation data combined with the Cepheids datasets prefer large values …
We study a dark matter production mechanism based on decays of a messenger WIMP-like state into a pair of dark matter particles that are self-interacting via exchange of a light mediator. Its distinctive thermal history allows the mediator to be stable and therefore avoid strong limits from the cosmic microwave background and indirect detection. A natural by-product of this mechanism is a possibility of a late time, i.e., after recombination, transition to subdominant dark radiation component through three-body and one-loop decays to states containing the light mediator. We examine to what ext…
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）
The emergence of an increasingly strong tension between the Hubble rate inferred from early- and late-time observations has reinvigorated interest in nonstandard scenarios, with the aim of reconciling these measurements. One such model involves interactions between Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Here we consider a specific form of the coupling between these two fluids proportional to the Dark Energy energy density, which has been studied extensively in the literature and claimed to substantially alleviate the Hubble tension. We complement the work already discussed in several previous analyses a…
Current tensions in cosmology, including $H_0$ and $σ_8$, provide one of the strong reasons to suspect the existence of physics beyond the standard model of cosmology ($Λ$CDM). In this paper, we investigate if there is a relation between these tensions and beyond cold dark matter scenarios. To model non-CDM, we assume a decaying dark matter (DDM) which is unstable and may decay into two daughter particles, a combination of cold dark matter, warm dark matter, and dark radiation, to explore a vast era of possibilities. We checked our model against CMB data and could show that decaying dark matte…
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…
It has been intensively discussed if modifications in the dynamics of the Universe at late times is able or not to solve the $H_0$ tension. On the other hand, it has also been argued that the $H_0$ tension is actually a tension on the supernova absolute magnitude $M_B$. In this work, we robustly constraint $M_B$ using Pantheon Supernovae Ia (SN) sample, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) data, and assess the $M_B$ tension by comparing three theoretical models, namely the standard $Λ$CDM, the $w$CDM and a non-gravitational interaction (IDE) between dark energ…
The recent analysis from the SH0ES Collaboration has confirmed the existence of a Hubble tension between measurements at high redshift ($z> 1000$) and at low redshift ($z<1$) at the $5σ$ level with the low redshift measurement giving a higher value. In this work we propose a particle physics model that can help alleviate the Hubble tension via an out-of-equilibrium hidden sector coupled to the visible sector. The particles that populate the dark sector consist of a dark fermion, which acts as dark matter, a dark photon, a massive scalar and a massless pseudo-scalar. Assuming no initial populat…
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）
We investigate the possibility of phantom crossing in the dark energy sector and solution for the Hubble tension between early and late universe observations. We use robust combinations of different cosmological observations, namely the CMB, local measurement of Hubble constant ($H_0$), BAO and SnIa for this purpose. For a combination of CMB+BAO data which is related to early Universe physics, phantom crossing in the dark energy sector is confirmed at $95$\% confidence level and we obtain the constraint $H_0=71.0^{+2.9}_{-3.8}$ km/s/Mpc at 68\% confidence level which is in perfect agreement wi…
We incorporate Milky Way dark matter halo profile uncertainties, as well as an accounting of diffuse gamma-ray emission uncertainties in dark matter annihilation models for the Galactic Center Extended gamma-ray excess (GCE) detected by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope. The range of particle annihilation rate and masses expand when including these unknowns. However, two of the most precise empirical determinations of the Milky Way halo's local density and density profile leave the signal region to be in considerable tension with dark matter annihilation searches from combined dwarf galaxy a…
Recent pulsar timing data reported by the NANOGrav collaboration may indicate the existence of a stochastic gravitational wave background around $f \sim 10^{-8}$ Hz. We explore a possibility to generate such low-frequency gravitational waves from a dark sector phase transition. Assuming that the dark sector is completely decoupled from the visible sector except via the gravitational interaction, we find that some amount of dark radiation should remain until present. The NANOGrav data implies that the amount of dark radiation is close to the current upper bound, which may help mitigate the so-c…
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 explore whether non-standard dark sector physics might be required to solve the existing cosmological tensions. The properties we consider in combination are an interaction between the dark matter and dark energy components, and a dark energy equation of state $w$ different from that of the canonical cosmological constant $w=-1$. In principle, these two parameters are independent. In practice, to avoid early-time, superhorizon instabilities, their allowed parameter spaces are correlated. We analyze three classes of extended interacting dark energy models in light of the 2019 Planck CMB resu…
We examine interactions between dark matter and dark energy in light of the latest cosmological observations, focusing on a specific model with coupling proportional to the dark energy density. Our data includes Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements from the Planck 2018 legacy data release, late-time measurements of the expansion history from Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) and Supernovae Type Ia (SNeIa), galaxy clustering and cosmic shear measurements from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 results, and the 2019 local distance ladder measurement of the Hubble constant $H_0$ from the Hu…
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…
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 …
Hot New Early Dark Energy bridging cosmic gaps: Supercooled phase transition reconciles (stepped) dark radiation solutions to the Hubble tension with BBN
Early dark energy (EDE) offers a particularly interesting theoretical approach to the Hubble tension, albeit one that introduces its own set of challenges, including a new `why then' problem related to the EDE injection time at matter-radiation equality, and a mild worsening of the large-scale structure (LSS) tension. Both these challenges center on the properties of dark matter, which becomes the dominant component of the Universe at EDE injection and is also responsible for seeding LSS. Motivated by this, we present the potential of couplings between EDE and dark matter to address these chal…
The increasingly significant tensions within $Λ$CDM, combined with the lack of detection of dark matter (DM) in laboratory experiments, have boosted interest in non-minimal dark sectors, which are theoretically well-motivated and inspire new search strategies for DM. Here we consider, for the first time, the possibility of DM having simultaneous interactions with photons, baryons, and dark radiation (DR). We have developed a new and efficient version of the Boltzmann code CLASS that allows for one DM species to have multiple interaction channels. With this framework we reassess existing cosmol…
