The GCDM Model

A model for the reduction in Universal density over time, the “GCDM” model, is derived using gas thermodynamics with z = 1089 as the starting point. In the GCDM model, the Universe is pushing itself apart with internal gas pressure. A simple three-term Hubble expression HG is derived and found to be independent, or zero-order, in temperature and molecular weight of the gas. Isoentropic expansion of the gas at any z yields an entropic energy term which is modified to include energetic electrons, derived in turn from high-energy photons. These electrons are proposed as the source of the “dark energy” term found in the ΛCDM model.

Modified gravity with disappearing cosmological constant

New corrections to General Relativity are considered in the context of modified f(R) gravity, that satisfy cosmological and local gravity constraints. The proposed models behave asymptotically as R − 2Λ at large curvature and show the vanishing of the cosmological constant at the flat spacetime limit. The chameleon mechanism and thin shell restrictions for local systems were analyzed, and bounds on the models were found. The steepness of the deviation parameter m at late times leads to measurable signal of scalar-tensor regime in matter perturbations, that allows to detect departures form the ΛCDM model. The theoretical results for the evolution of the weighted growth rate fσ8(z), from the proposed models, were analyzed.

A more accurate Parameterization based on cosmic Age (MAPAge)

Recently, several statistically significant tensions between different cosmological datasets have raised doubts about the standard Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model. A recent letter (Huang 2020) suggests to use “Parameterization based on cosmic Age” (PAge) to approximate a broad class of beyond-ΛCDM models, with a typical accuracy ∼1% in angular diameter distances at z ≲ 10. In this work, we extend PAge to a More Accurate Parameterization based on cosmic Age (MAPAge) by adding a new degree of freedom η 2. The parameter η 2 describes the difference between physically motivated models and their phenomenological PAge approximations. The accuracy of MAPAge, typically of order 10−3 in angular diameter distances at z ≲ 10, is significantly better than PAge. We compare PAge and MAPAge with current observational data and forecast data. The conjecture in Huang (2020), that PAge approximation is sufficiently good for current observations, is quantitatively confirmed in this work. We also show that the extension from PAge to MAPAge is important for future observations, which typically require sub-percent accuracy in theoretical predictions.

Cosmological constraints from unWISE and Planck CMB lensing tomography

A number of recent, low-redshift, lensing measurements hint at a universe in which the amplitude of lensing is lower than that predicted from the ΛCDM model fit to the data of the Planck CMB mission. Here we use the auto- and cross-correlation signal of unWISE galaxies and Planck CMB lensing maps to infer cosmological parameters at low redshift. In particular, we consider three unWISE samples (denoted as "blue", "green" and "red") at median redshifts z ∼ 0.6, 1.1 and 1.5, which fully cover the Dark Energy dominated era. Our cross-correlation measurements, with combined significance S/N ∼ 80, are used to infer the amplitude of low-redshift fluctuations, σ8; the fraction of matter in the Universe, Ω m ; and the combination S8 ≡ σ8 (Ω m /0.3)0.5 to which these low-redshift lensing measurements are most sensitive. The combination of blue, green and red samples gives a value S m = 0.784 ± 0.015, that is fully consistent with other low-redshift lensing measurements and in 2.4σ tension with the CMB predictions from Planck. This is noteworthy, because CMB lensing probes the same physics as previous galaxy lensing measurements, but with very different systematics, thus providing an excellent complement to previous measurements.

The Λ and the CDM as Integration Constants

Notoriously, the two main problems of the standard ΛCDM model of cosmology are the cosmological constant Λ and the cold dark matter, CDM. This essay shows that both the Λ and the CDM arise as integration constants in a careful derivation of Einstein’s equations from first principles in a Lorentz gauge theory. The dark sector of the universe might only reflect the geometry of a spontaneous symmetry breaking that is necessary for the existence of spacetime and an observer therein.

R+RG gravity with maximal Noether symmetry

A Noether symmetric, 3rd order polynomial in the Riemann curvature tensor R αβμν extension of the General Relativity (GR) without cosmological constant (R+RG gravity) is suggested and discussed as a possible fundamental theory of gravity in 4-dimensional space-time with the geometric part of the Lagrangian to be L R + R G = − g 2 k R ( 1 + G G P ) . Here k = 8 π G N c 4 is the Einstein constant, g = det ( g μ ν ) , g μ ν - the metric tensor, GN - the Newton constant, c - the speed of light, R = R μ ν μ ν - the Ricci scalar, G = R 2 − 4 R μ ν R μ ν + R α β μ ν R α β μ ν - the Gauss-Bonnet topological invariant, and GP - a new constant of the gravitational self-interaction to model the cosmological bounce, inflation, accelerated expansion of the Universe, etc. The best fit to the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data for the Hubble parameter H (z) at the redshifts z<2.36 leads to G P 1 / 4 = ( 0.557 ± 0.014 ) T p c − 1 with the mean square weighted deviation from the data about 3 times smaller than for the standard cosmological (ΛCDM) model. Due to the self-gravitating term ∼RG the respective Einstein equation in the R+RG gravity contains the additional (tachyonic in the past and now) scalar (spin = 0) graviton and the perfect geometric fluid tensor with pressure-and matter-like terms equal to the respective terms in the ΛCDM model at |z| 1. Some predictions of this R+RG gravity for the Universe are also done.

μ-distortion around stupendously large primordial black holes

In a variety of mechanisms generating primordial black holes, each black hole is expected to form along with a surrounding underdense region that roughly compensates the black hole mass. This region will propagate outwards and expand as a shell at the speed of sound in the homogeneous background. Dissipation of the shell due to Silk damping could lead to detectable μ-distortion in the CMB spectrum: if black holes are rare on the last scattering surface, the signal(s) would be pointlike; whereas if there are a sufficient number of them, we could have a uniform distortion in the CMB sky. While the current bound on the average μ-distortion is |μ̅| ≲ 10-4, the standard ΛCDM model predicts |μ̅| ∼ 10-8, which could possibly be detected in future missions. It is shown in this work that the non-observation of μ̅ beyond ΛCDM can place a new upper bound on the density of supermassive primordial black holes within the mass range 106 M ☉≲ M ≲ 1015 M ☉. Furthermore, black holes with initial mass M ≳ 1012 M ☉ could leave a pointlike distortion with μ ≳10-8 at an angular scale ∼ 1° in CMB, and its non-observation would impose an even more stringent bound on the population of these stupendously large primordial black holes.

Cosmic Gas Thermodynamics at z = 1089

The Universe at z = 1089 is treated as an expanding ideal gas. Its internal kinetic energy loss exceeds the amount absorbed by gravity and drives further expansion. A Hubble relation (Hg) is derived and compared to the value found by the ΛCDM model (HΛ) over the range z = 1089 to 0. The results suggest that the adiabatic release of energy from cosmic gas accounts for about half of present-day Universal expansion.

Possible Modification of the Standard Cosmological Model to Resolve a Tension with Hubble Constant Values

The tensions concerning the values of Hubble constant obtained from the early and the late Universe data pose a significant challenge to modern cosmology. Possible modifications of the flat homogeneous isotropic cosmological ΛCDM model are considered, in which the Universe contains the dark energy, cold baryonic matter, and dark matter. They are based on general relativity and satisfy two requirements: (1) the value of the Hubble constant calculated from the value of the Hubble parameter at the recombination by formulas of the flat ΛCDM model, should be equal to 92% of the one based on low-redshift observations; (2) deviations from the ΛCDM model should not lead to effects that contradict astronomical observations and estimations obtained thereof. The analysis showed that there are few opportunities for the choice. Either we should consider DM with negative pressure −pdmc2 ≪ pdm < 0, which weakly affects the evolution of the Universe and the observed manifestations of DM, or we should admit the mechanism of generation of new matter, for example, by the dark energy decay.

Generalized holographic cosmology: low-redshift observational constraint

Four-dimensional cosmological models are studied on a boundary of a five-dimensional Anti-de Sitter (AdS5) black hole with AdS Reissner-Nordström and scalar charged Reissner-Nordström black hole solutions, where we call the former a “Hairless” black hole and the latter a “Hairy” black hole. To obtain the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetime metric on the boundary of the AdS5 black hole, we employ Eddington-Finkelstein (EF) coordinates to the bulk geometry. We then derive modified Friedmann equations on a boundary of the AdS5 black hole via AdS/CFT correspondence and discuss its cosmological implications. The late-time acceleration of the universe is investigated in our models. The contributions coming from the bulk side is treated as dark energy source, and we perform MCMC analyses using observational data. Compared to the ΛCDM model, our models contain additional free parameters; therefore, to make a fair comparison, we use the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) to analyze our results. Our numerical analyses show that our models can explain the observational data as reliable as the ΛCDM model does for the current data.