Model-Independent Dark Energy Equation of State from Unanchored Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

Ratios of line of sight baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) peaks at two redshifts only depend upon the average dark energy equation of states between those redshifts, as the dependence on anchors such as the BAO scale or the Hubble constant is canceled in a ratio. As a result, BAO ratios provide a probe of dark energy which is independent of both the cosmic distance ladder and the early evolution of universe. In this note, we use ratios to demonstrate that the known tension between the Lyman alpha forest BAO measurement and other probes arises entirely from recent (0.57<z<2.34) cosmological expansion. Using ratios of the line of sight Lyman alpha forest and BOSS CMASS BAO scales, we show that there is already more than 3 sigma tension with the standard LambdaCDM cosmological model which implies that either (i) The BOSS Lyman alpha forest measurement of the Hubble parameter was too low as a result of a statistical fluctuation or systematic error or else (ii) the dark energy equation of state falls steeply at high redshift.