We use three different data sets, specifically $H(z)$ measurements from cosmic chronometers, the HII-galaxy Hubble diagram, and reconstructed quasar-core angular-size measurements, to perform a joint analysis of three flat cosmological models: the $R
_{rm h}=ct$ Universe, $Lambda$CDM, and $w$CDM. For $R_{rm h}=ct$, the 1$sigma$ best-fit value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ is $62.336pm1.464$ $mathrm{km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$, which matches previous measurements ($sim 63$ $mathrm{km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$) based on best fits to individual data sets. For $Lambda$CDM, our inferred value of the Hubble constant, $H_0=67.013pm2.578$ $mathrm{km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$, is more consistent with the ${it Planck}$ optimization than the locally measured value using $mbox{Cepheid}$ variables, and the matter density $Omega_{rm m}=0.347pm0.049$ similarly coincides with its ${it Planck}$ value to within 1$sigma$. For $w$CDM, the optimized parameters are $H_0=64.718pm3.088$ $mathrm{km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$, $Omega_{rm m}=0.247pm0.108$ and $w=-0.693pm0.276$, also consistent with ${it Planck}$. A direct comparison of these three models using the Bayesian Information Criterion shows that the $R_{rm h}=ct$ universe is favored by the joint analysis with a likelihood of $sim 97%$ versus $lesssim 3%$ for the other two cosmologies.
Aiming at exploring the nature of dark energy (DE), we use forty-three observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) in the redshift range $0 < z leqslant 2.36$ to make a cosmological model-independent test of the $Lambda$CDM model with two-point $Omh^2(
z_{2};z_{1})$ diagnostic. In $Lambda$CDM model, with equation of state (EoS) $w=-1$, two-point diagnostic relation $Omh^2 equiv Omega_m h^2$ is tenable, where $Omega_m$ is the present matter density parameter, and $h$ is the Hubble parameter divided by 100 $rm km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}$. We utilize two methods: the weighted mean and median statistics to bin the OHD to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the measurements. The binning methods turn out to be promising and considered to be robust. By applying the two-point diagnostic to the binned data, we find that although the best-fit values of $Omh^2$ fluctuate as the continuous redshift intervals change, on average, they are continuous with being constant within 1 $sigma$ confidence interval. Therefore, we conclude that the $Lambda$CDM model cannot be ruled out.
We focus on a series of $f(R)$ gravity theories in Palatini formalism to investigate the probabilities of producing the late-time acceleration for the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe. We apply statefinder diagnostic to these cosmologic
al models for chosen series of parameters to see if they distinguish from one another. The diagnostic involves the statefinder pair ${r,s}$, where $r$ is derived from the scale factor $a$ and its higher derivatives with respect to the cosmic time $t$, and $s$ is expressed by $r$ and the deceleration parameter $q$. In conclusion, we find that although two types of $f(R)$ theories: (i) $f(R) = R + alpha R^m - beta R^{-n}$ and (ii) $f(R) = R + alpha ln R - beta$ can lead to late-time acceleration, their evolutionary trajectories in the $r-s$ and $r-q$ planes reveal different evolutionary properties, which certainly justify the merits of statefinder diagnostic. Additionally, we utilize the observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) to constrain these models of $f(R)$ gravity. As a result, except for $m=n=1/2$ of (i) case, $alpha=0$ of (i) case and (ii) case allow $Lambda$CDM model to exist in 1$sigma$ confidence region. After adopting statefinder diagnostic to the best-fit models, we find that all the best-fit models are capable of going through deceleration/acceleration transition stage with late-time acceleration epoch, and all these models turn to de-Sitter point (${r,s}={1,0}$) in the future. Also, the evolutionary differences between these models are distinct, especially in $r-s$ plane, which makes the statefinder diagnostic more reliable in discriminating cosmological models.
In order to explore the generic properties of a backreaction model for explaining the accelerated expansion of the Universe, we exploit two metrics to describe the late time Universe. Since the standard FLRW metric cannot precisely describe the late
time Universe on small scales, the template metric with an evolving curvature parameter $kappa_{mathcal{D}}(t)$ is employed. However, we doubt the validity of the prescription for $kappa_{mathcal{D}}$, which motivates us apply observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) to constrain parameters in dust cosmology. First, for FLRW metric, by getting best-fit constraints of $Omega^{{mathcal{D}}_0}_m = 0.25^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$, $n = 0.02^{+0.69}_{-0.66}$, and $H_{mathcal{D}_0} = 70.54^{+4.24}_{-3.97} {rm km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$, the evolutions of parameters are explored. Second, in template metric context, by marginalizing over $H_{mathcal{D}_0}$ as a prior of uniform distribution, we obtain the best-fit values of $n=-1.22^{+0.68}_{-0.41}$ and ${{Omega}_{m}^{mathcal{D}_{0}}}=0.12^{+0.04}_{-0.02}$. Moreover, we utilize three different Gaussian priors of $H_{mathcal{D}_0}$, which result in different best-fits of $n$, but almost the same best-fit value of ${{Omega}_{m}^{mathcal{D}_{0}}}sim0.12$. Also, the absolute constraints without marginalization of parameter are obtained: $n=-1.1^{+0.58}_{-0.50}$ and ${{Omega}_{m}^{mathcal{D}_{0}}}=0.13pm0.03$. With these constraints, the evolutions of the effective deceleration parameter $q^{mathcal{D}}$ indicate that the backreaction can account for the accelerated expansion of the Universe without involving extra dark energy component in the scaling solution context. Nevertheless, the results also verify that the prescription of $kappa_{mathcal{D}}$ is insufficient and should be improved.
