Any unified early and late dark energy scenario with a single tracking scalar field requires a potential with three distinct slopes arranged in a steep-steeper-shallow hierarchy.
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New constraint on Early Dark Energy from Planck and BOSS data using the profile likelihood
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abstract
A dark energy-like component in the early universe, known as early dark energy (EDE), is a proposed solution to the Hubble tension. Currently, there is no consensus in the literature as to whether EDE can simultaneously solve the Hubble tension and provide an adequate fit to the data from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure of the universe. In this work, we deconstruct the current constraints from the Planck CMB and the full-shape clustering data of the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) to understand the origin of different conclusions in the literature. We use two different analyses, a grid sampling and a profile likelihood, to investigate whether the current constraints suffer from volume effects upon marginalization and are biased towards some values of the EDE fraction, $f_\mathrm{EDE}$. We find that $f_\mathrm{EDE}$ allowed by the data strongly depends on the particular choice of the other parameters of the model and that several choices of these parameters prefer larger values of $f_\mathrm{EDE}$ than in the Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis. This suggests that volume effects are the reason behind the disagreement in the literature. Motivated by this, we use a profile likelihood to analyze the EDE model and compute a confidence interval for $f_\mathrm{EDE}$, finding $f_\mathrm{EDE} = 0.072\pm 0.036$ ($68\%$ C.L.). This confidence interval is not subject to volume effects; thus, our approach yields more robust constraints on EDE and provides a powerful tool to understand whether EDE is a possible solution to the Hubble tension.
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Model-independent reconstruction shows that early-universe modifications resolving the Hubble tension exist at the background level, requiring a smooth ~15% pre-recombination expansion rate enhancement.
Two-field axion-like early dark energy reduces Hubble tension to 1.5 sigma residual and improves high-ell CMB fits over single-field models.
A barotropic fluid with ω_s ≈ 0.29 and Ω_s ≈ 1.5×10^{-5} raises the inferred H0 to match SH0ES while remaining consistent with Planck CMB, DESI BAO, and Pantheon data.
Early dark energy resolves CMB-BAO tension and, combined with thawing quintessence, reduces overall cosmological tensions without phantom crossing.
A swampland-inspired DM-EDE coupling is tested against DESI DR2 BAO data, showing the EDE potential construction affects late-time dark energy constraints.
citing papers explorer
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Unifying Early and Late Dark Energy: Dynamical Requirements and Obstructions
Any unified early and late dark energy scenario with a single tracking scalar field requires a potential with three distinct slopes arranged in a steep-steeper-shallow hierarchy.
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Geometric Constraints on the Pre-Recombination Expansion History from the Hubble Tension
Model-independent reconstruction shows that early-universe modifications resolving the Hubble tension exist at the background level, requiring a smooth ~15% pre-recombination expansion rate enhancement.
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Double the axions, half the tension: multi-field early dark energy eases the Hubble tension
Two-field axion-like early dark energy reduces Hubble tension to 1.5 sigma residual and improves high-ell CMB fits over single-field models.
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A barotropic alternative to Early Dark Energy for alleviating the $H_0$ tension
A barotropic fluid with ω_s ≈ 0.29 and Ω_s ≈ 1.5×10^{-5} raises the inferred H0 to match SH0ES while remaining consistent with Planck CMB, DESI BAO, and Pantheon data.
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Disentangling cosmic distance tensions with early and late dark energy
Early dark energy resolves CMB-BAO tension and, combined with thawing quintessence, reduces overall cosmological tensions without phantom crossing.
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Imprint of swampland-inspired coupled early dark energy
A swampland-inspired DM-EDE coupling is tested against DESI DR2 BAO data, showing the EDE potential construction affects late-time dark energy constraints.