No Arabic abstract
It is currently thought that the early dark energy (EDE) resolution of the Hubble tension will inevitably suffer inconsistency with the large scale structure data (quantified as $S_8$). However, if this so-called $S_8$ tension is physical, it might be related only with the clustering property of dark matter at the corresponding scale. We find by performing Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis that in the AdS-EDE model (with an Anti-de Sitter phase around recombination), if an axion field with mass $m_asimeq1.3times10^{-26}$ eV becomes dynamical at redshift $zsimeq 1.7times10^4$ and constitutes $7%$ of the total dark matter, both $H_0$ and $S_8$ will be consistent with local measurements within $1sigma$, while the model can fit PlanckCMB+SN+BAO+EFT dataset as well as $Lambda$CDM, which will possibly be tested with on-going CMB and galaxy surveys.
By focusing on the simple $w eq-1$ extension to $Lambda$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-$alpha$ 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.
The mismatch between the locally measured expansion rate of the universe and the one inferred from observations of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) assuming the canonical $Lambda$CDM model has become the new cornerstone of modern cosmology, and many new-physics set ups are rising to the challenge. Concomitant with the so-called $H_0$ problem, there is evidence of a growing tension between the CMB-preferred value and the local determination of the weighted amplitude of matter fluctuations $S_8$. It would be appealing and compelling if both the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions were resolved at once, but as yet none of the proposed new-physics models have done so to a satisfactory degree. Herein, we adopt a systematic approach to investigate the possible interconnection among the free parameters in several classes of models that typify the main theoretical frameworks tackling the tensions on the universe expansion rate and the clustering of matter. Our calculations are carried out using the publicly available Boltzmann solver CAMB in combination with the sampler CosmoMC. We show that even after combining the leading classes of models sampling modifications of both the early and late time universe a simultaneous solution to the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions remains elusive.
New Early Dark Energy (NEDE) is a component of vacuum energy at the electron volt scale, which decays in a first-order phase transition shortly before recombination [arXiv:1910.10739]. The NEDE component has the potential to resolve the tension between recent local measurements of the expansion rate of the Universe using supernovae (SN) data and the expansion rate inferred from the early Universe through measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) when assuming $Lambda$CDM. We discuss in depth the two-scalar field model of the NEDE phase transition including the process of bubble percolation, collision, and coalescence. We also estimate the gravitational wave signal produced during the collision phase and argue that it can be searched for using pulsar timing arrays. In a second step, we construct an effective cosmological model, which describes the phase transition as an instantaneous process, and derive the covariant equations that match perturbations across the transition surface. Fitting the cosmological model to CMB, baryonic acoustic oscillations and SN data, we report $H_0 = 69.6^{+1.0}_{-1.3} , textrm{km}, textrm{s}^{-1}, textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ $(68 %$ C.L.) without the local measurement of the Hubble parameter, bringing the tension down to $2.5, sigma$. Including the local input, we find $H_0 = 71.4 pm 1.0 , textrm{km}, textrm{s}^{-1}, textrm{Mpc}^{-1}$ $(68 %$ C.L.) and strong evidence for a non-vanishing NEDE component with a $simeq 4, sigma$ significance.
Gravitational lensing time delays offer an avenue to measure the Hubble parameter $H_0$, with some analyses suggesting a tension with early-type probes of $H_0$. The lensing measurements must mitigate systematic uncertainties due to the mass modelling of lens galaxies. In particular, a core component in the lens density profile would form an approximate local mass sheet degeneracy and could bias $H_0$ in the right direction to solve the lensing tension. We consider ultralight dark matter as a possible mechanism to generate such galactic cores. We show that cores of roughly the required properties could arise naturally if an ultralight axion of mass $msim10^{-25}$ eV makes up a fraction of order ten percent of the total cosmological dark matter density. A relic abundance of this order of magnitude could come from vacuum misalignment. Stellar kinematics measurements of well-resolved massive galaxies (including the Milky Way) may offer a way to test the scenario. Kinematics analyses aiming to test the core hypothesis in massive elliptical lens galaxies should not, in general, adopt the perfect mass sheet limit, as ignoring the finite extent of an actual physical core could lead to significant systematic errors.
With the recent increase in precision of our cosmological datasets, measurements of $Lambda$CDM model parameter provided by high- and low-redshift observations started to be in tension, i.e., the obtained values of such parameters were shown to be significantly different in a statistical sense. In~this work we tackle the tension on the value of the Hubble parameter, $H_0$, and the weighted amplitude of matter fluctuations, $S_8$, obtained from local or low-redshift measurements and from cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations. We combine the main approaches previously used in the literature by extending the cosmological model and accounting for extra systematic uncertainties. With such analysis we aim at exploring non standard cosmological models, implying deviation from a cosmological constant driven acceleration of the Universe expansion, in the presence of additional uncertainties in measurements. In more detail, we reconstruct the Dark Energy equation of state as a function of redshift, while we study the impact of type-Ia supernovae (SNIa) redshift-dependent astrophysical systematic effects on these tensions. We consider a SNIa intrinsic luminosity dependence on redshift due to the star formation rate in its environment, or the metallicity of the progenitor. We find that the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions can be significantly alleviated, or~even removed, if we account for varying Dark Energy for SNIa and CMB data. However, the tensions remain when we add baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) data into the analysis, even after the addition of extra SNIa systematic uncertainties. This points towards the need of either new physics beyond late-time Dark Energy, or other unaccounted systematic effects (particulary in BAO measurements), to fully solve the present tensions.