Giarè, W. orcid.org/0000-0002-4012-9285 (2024) Inflation, the Hubble tension, and early dark energy: an alternative overview. Physical Review D, 109 (12). 123545. ISSN 2470-0010
Abstract
I review and discuss the possible implications for inflation resulting from considering new physics in light of the Hubble tension. My study is motivated by a simple argument that the constraints on inflationary parameters, most typically the spectral index ns, depend to some extent on the cosmological framework. To avoid broadening the uncertainties resulting from marginalizing over additional parameters (typical in many alternative models), I first adopt the same alternative viewpoint of previous studies and analyze what happens if a physical theory can fix extra parameters to nonstandard values. Focusing on the dark energy equation of state w and the effective number of relativistic species Neff, I confirm that physical theories able to fix w ≈−1.2 or Neff ≈3.9 produce values of H0 from Cosmic Microwave Background and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in line with the local distance ladder estimate. While in the former case I do not find any relevant implications for inflation, in the latter scenarios, I observe a shift toward ns ≈ 1. From a modelselection perspective, both cases are strongly disfavored compared to Λ cold dark matter. However, models with Neff ≈ 3.3–3.4 could bring the H0 tension down to ∼3σ while being moderately disfavored. Yet, this is enough to change the constraints on inflation so that the most accredited models (e.g., Starobinsky inflation) would no longer be favored by data. I then focus on Early Dark Energy (EDE), arguing that an EDE fraction fEDE ∼ 0.04–0.06 (only able to mildly reduce the H0 tension down to ∼3σ) could already require a similar change in perspective on inflation. In fact, performing a full joint analysis of EDE and Starobinsky inflation, I find that the two models can hardly coexist for fEDE ≳ 0.06.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Keywords: | Cosmic microwave background; Cosmological parameters; Cosmology; Dark energy; Inflation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 31 Jan 2025 16:27 |
Last Modified: | 31 Jan 2025 16:27 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Physical Society (APS) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1103/physrevd.109.123545 |
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Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:222484 |