Low-redshift tests of Newtonian cosmologies with a time-varying gravitational constant

ABSTRACT In this work, we investigate Newtonian cosmologies with a time-varying gravitational constant, G(t). We examine whether such models can reproduce the low-redshift cosmological observations without a cosmological constant, or any other sort of explicit dark energy fluid. Starting with a modified Newton’s second law, where G is taken as a function of time, we derive the first Friedmann–Lemaître equation, where a second parameter, G*, appears as the gravitational constant. This parameter is related to the original G from the second law, which remains in the acceleration equation. We use this approach to reproduce various cosmological scenarios that are studied in the literature, and we test these models with low-redshift probes: type-Ia supernovae (SNIa), baryon acoustic oscillations, and cosmic chronometers, taking also into account a possible change in the supernovae intrinsic luminosity with redshift. As a result, we obtain several models with similar χ2 values as the standard ΛCDM cosmology. When we allow for a redshift-dependence of the SNIa intrinsic luminosity, a model with a G exponentially decreasing to zero while remaining positive (model 4) can explain the observations without acceleration. When we assume no redshift-dependence of SNIa, the observations favour a negative G at large scales, while G* remains positive for most of these models. We conclude that these models offer interesting interpretations to the low-redshift cosmological observations, without needing a dark energy term.

CMB Tensions with Low-Redshift H0 and S8 Measurements: Impact of a Redshift-Dependent Type-Ia Supernovae Intrinsic Luminosity

With the recent increase in precision of our cosmological datasets, measurements of Λ 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.

Model-independent cosmic acceleration and redshift-dependent intrinsic luminosity in type-Ia supernovae

Context. The cosmological concordance model (ΛCDM) is the current standard model in cosmology thanks to its ability to reproduce the observations. The first observational evidence for this model appeared roughly 20 years ago from the type-Ia supernovae (SNIa) Hubble diagram from two different groups. However, there has been some debate in the literature concerning the statistical treatment of SNIa, and their stature as proof of cosmic acceleration. Aims. In this paper we relax the standard assumption that SNIa intrinsic luminosity is independent of redshift, and examine whether it may have an impact on our cosmological knowledge and more precisely on the accelerated nature of the expansion of the universe. Methods. To maximise the scope of this study, we do not specify a given cosmological model, but we reconstruct the expansion rate of the universe through a cubic spline interpolation fitting the observations of the different cosmological probes: SNIa, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), and the high-redshift information from the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Results. We show that when SNIa intrinsic luminosity is not allowed to vary as a function of redshift, cosmic acceleration is definitely proven in a model-independent approach. However, allowing for redshift dependence, a nonaccelerated reconstruction of the expansion rate is able to fit, at the same level of ΛCDM, the combination of SNIa and BAO data, both treating the BAO standard ruler rd as a free parameter (not entering on the physics governing the BAO), and adding the recently published prior from CMB observations. We further extend the analysis by including the CMB data. In this case we also consider a third way to combine the different probes by explicitly computing rd from the physics of the early universe, and we show that a nonaccelerated reconstruction is able to nicely fit this combination of low- and high-redshift data. We also check that this reconstruction is compatible with the latest measurements of the growth rate of matter perturbations. We finally show that the value of the Hubble constant (H0) predicted by this reconstruction is in tension with model-independent measurements. Conclusions. We present a model-independent reconstruction of a nonaccelerated expansion rate of the universe that is able to fit all the main background cosmological probes nicely. However, the predicted value of H0 is in tension with recent direct measurements. Our analysis points out that a final reliable and consensual value for H0 is critical to definitively prove cosmic acceleration in a model-independent way.

NGC 300 ULX1: A new ULX pulsar in NGC 300

NGC 300 ULX1 is the fourth to be discovered in the class of the ultra-luminous X-ray pulsars. Pulsations from NGC 300 ULX1 were discovered during simultaneous XMM-Newton / NuSTAR observations in Dec. 2016. The period decreased from 31.71 s to 31.54 s within a few days, with a spin-up rate of –5.56×10–7 s s–1, likely one of the largest ever observed from an accreting neutron star. Archival Swift and NICER observations revealed that the period decreased exponentially from ~45 s to ~17.5 s over 2.3 years. The pulses are highly modulated with a pulsed fraction strongly increasing with energy and reaching nearly 80% at energies above 10 keV. The X-ray spectrum is described by a power-law and a disk black-body model, leading to a 0.3–30 keV unabsorbed luminosity of 4.7×1039 erg s–1. The spectrum from an archival XMM-Newton observation of 2010 can be explained by the same model, however, with much higher absorption. This suggests, that the intrinsic luminosity did not change much since that epoch. NGC 300 ULX1 shares many properties with supergiant high mass X-ray binaries, however, at an extreme accretion rate.

A homogeneous distance catalogue for Galactic RV Tauri objects

A subset of Post-AGB (PAGB) objects are the highly luminous RV Tauri variables that show similarities to Type-II Cepheids. By using a sample of known RV Tauri stars from the Magellanic Clouds we are able to determine period luminosity relationships (PLRs) in various bands that have been used to determine the luminosities of their Galactic counterparts. We have gathered all available photometry in order to generate an SED for each object and determine the total integrated flux. This total flux combined with a calculated or inferred intrinsic luminosity leads to a distance (Vickers et al. 2015). This distance catalogue has allowed us to begin to constrain the physical parameters of this poorly understood evolutionary phase and to determine links between these physical characteristics as a function of their stellar population.

z > 4 low luminosity dusty galaxy candidates in the Frontier Fields A2744, AS1063 and A370

We have conducted a LABOCA 870 μm follow-up of ten massive lensing clusters of the Herschel Lensing Survey (HLS, Egami et al. 2010) aiming at unveiling the yet hidden part of dusty star formation in the distant Universe. Among these clusters, A2744 and AS1063 are part of the Frontier Fields HST program. We also obtained 2 mm bolometer observations of A2744 and A370 with the GISMO array at the IRAM 30 m. We detected sources that are undetected with Herschel (PACS and SPIRE) implying either a very high redshift (z > 4) or a very low dust temperature (T<25 K). Their flux also imply a low intrinsic luminosity, LFIR < 1012L⊙. Some of them are extended and could correspond to multiple sources or to multiple images of a lensed source. Substructures in the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect could also contribute this very red submm emission. An ALMA program is ongoing to unveil the nature of these sources.