Calibrating the cosmic distance scale ladder: the role of the sound horizon scale and the local expansion rate as distance anchors

Abstract

We exploit cosmological-model independent measurements of the expansion history of the Universe to provide a cosmic distance ladder. These are supernovae type Ia used as standard candles (at redshift between 0.01 and 1.3) and baryon acoustic oscillations (at redshifts between 0.1 and 0.8) as standard rulers. We calibrate (anchor) the ladder in two ways: first using the local $H_0$ value as an anchor at $z$ = 0 (effectively calibrating the standard candles) and secondly using the cosmic microwave background-inferred sound-horizon scale as an anchor (giving the standard ruler length) as an inverse distance ladder. Both methods are consistent, but the uncertainty in the expansion history $H(z)$ is smaller if the sound horizon scale is used. We present inferred values for the sound horizon at radiation drag $r_d$ which do not rely on assumptions about the early expansion history nor on cosmic microwave background measurements but on the cosmic distance ladder and baryon acoustic oscillations measurements. We also present derived values of $H_0$ from the inverse distance ladder and we show that they are in very good agreement with the extrapolated value in a $\Lambda$CDM model from Planck cosmic microwave background data.

arXiv comment10 pages, 8 figures. Matches the version accepted by MNRAS. This version includes an additional BAO measurement (SDSS DR7 MGS) in the analysis. As a result, numerical values and figures have been recomputed. We find no significant changes due to the inclusion of this additional dataset

References in corpus (42)

• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
• Planck 2013 results. XVI. Cosmological parameters
• Detection of the Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Large-Scale Correlation Function of SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach
• The 6dF Galaxy Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Local Hubble Constant
• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results
• Baryonic Features in the Matter Transfer Function
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Power-spectrum analysis of the final dataset and cosmological implications
• The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-III
• Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Data Release 10 and 11 galaxy samples
• The Clustering of the SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample I: A 4 per cent Distance Measure at z=0.15
• New Hubble Space Telescope Discoveries of Type Ia Supernovae at z > 1: Narrowing Constraints on the Early Behavior of Dark Energy
• Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results
• The Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey: V. Improving the Dark Energy Constraints Above z>1 and Building an Early-Type-Hosted Supernova Sample
• A 3% Solution: Determination of the Hubble Constant with the Hubble Space Telescope and Wide Field Camera 3
• Constraints on the redshift dependence of the dark energy potential
• Supernova Constraints and Systematic Uncertainties from the First 3 Years of the Supernova Legacy Survey
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Lyα forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
• Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements
• Quasar-Lyman $\alpha$ Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS DR11 : Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
• CfA3: 185 Type Ia Supernova Light Curves from the CfA
• The 1% Concordance Hubble Constant
• The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: Improved Distance Measurements to z = 1 with Reconstruction of the Baryonic Acoustic Feature
• H0 Revisited
• How Massless Neutrinos Affect the Cosmic Microwave Background Damping Tail
• Toward a New Geometric Distance to the Active Galaxy NGC 4258. III. Final Results and the Hubble Constant
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Temperature and Gravitational Lensing Power Spectrum Measurements from Three Seasons of Data
• Evidence for massive neutrinos from CMB and lensing observations
• A measurement of secondary cosmic microwave background anisotropies with two years of South Pole Telescope observations
• $\nu \Lambda$CDM: Neutrinos help reconcile Planck with the Local Universe
• Cosmic variance and the measurement of the local Hubble parameter
• Planck Data Reconsidered
• The Megamaser Cosmology Project: I. VLBI observations of UGC 3789
• First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) supernova results: consistency and constraints with other intermediate-redshift datasets
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: galaxy clustering measurements in the low redshift sample of Data Release 11
• A new life for sterile neutrinos: resolving inconsistencies using hot dark matter
• Neutrinos help reconcile Planck measurements with both Early and Local Universe
• Standard rulers, candles, and clocks from the low-redshift Universe
• The Megamaser Cosmology Project. V. An Angular Diameter Distance to NGC 6264 at 140 Mpc
• Parallax Beyond a Kiloparsec from Spatially Scanning the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope

Cited by in corpus (78)

• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• A 2.4% Determination of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant
• The Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmological Implications from two Decades of Spectroscopic Surveys at the Apache Point observatory
• H0LiCOW XIII. A 2.4% measurement of $H_0$ from lensed quasars: $5.3\sigma$ tension between early and late-Universe probes
• DESI 2024 VI: Cosmological Constraints from the Measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
• Challenges for $\Lambda$CDM: An update
• Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements
• The trouble with $H_0$
• New physics in light of the $H_0$ tension: an alternative view
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: mock galaxy catalogues for the BOSS Final Data Release
• A SHARP view of H0LiCOW: $H_0$ from three time-delay gravitational lens systems with adaptive optics imaging
• Sounds Discordant: Classical Distance Ladder & $\Lambda$CDM -based Determinations of the Cosmological Sound Horizon
• Prospects for resolving the Hubble constant tension with standard sirens
• Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters
• A Future Percent-Level Measurement of the Hubble Expansion at Redshift 0.8 With Advanced LIGO
• Revisiting a negative cosmological constant from low-redshift data
• Dark Energy in light of Multi-Messenger Gravitational-Wave astronomy
• The clustering of galaxies in the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the correlation function of LOWZ and CMASS galaxies in Data Release 12
• General Cosmography Model with Spatial Curvature
• Model independent $H(z)$ reconstruction using the cosmic inverse distance ladder
• A model-independent determination of the Hubble constant from lensed quasars and supernovae using Gaussian process regression
• A new method to build the (inverse) distance ladder
• Chameleon dark energy can resolve the Hubble tension
• Constraints on deviations from $\Lambda$CDM within Horndeski gravity
• Cosmic chronometers to calibrate the ladders and measure the curvature of the Universe. A model-independent study
• Cosmological Hints of Modified Gravity ?
• A fast test to assess the impact of marginalization in Monte Carlo analyses, and its application to cosmology
• Cosmological constraints on post-Newtonian parameters in effectively massless scalar-tensor theories of gravity
• Constraining the time evolution of dark energy, curvature and neutrino properties with cosmic chronometers
• Determining Model-independent $H_0$ and Consistency Tests
• Euclid: Forecast constraints on the cosmic distance duality relation with complementary external probes
• The local and distant Universe: stellar ages and $H_0$
• No-go guide for the Hubble tension : Late-time solutions
• Symmetry of Cosmological Observables, and a High Hubble Constant as an Indicator of a Mirror World Dark Sector
• A measurement of the Hubble constant from angular diameter distances to two gravitational lenses
• Cosmological limits on neutrino unknowns versus low redshift priors
• Robustness of baryon acoustic oscillation constraints for early-Universe modifications to $\Lambda$CDM
• Coupled and uncoupled early dark energy, massive neutrinos and the cosmological tensions
• A tale of two (or more) $h$'s
• Cosmological Results from the RAISIN Survey: Using Type Ia Supernovae in the Near Infrared as a Novel Path to Measure the Dark Energy Equation of State
• The Hubble Constant determined through an inverse distance ladder including quasar time delays and Type Ia supernovae
• Late-Time constraints on Interacting Dark Energy: Analysis independent of $H_0$, $r_d$ and $M_B$
• The Cosmic Expansion History from Line-Intensity Mapping
• Constraining the dark energy models using Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: An approach independent of $H_0\cdot r_d$
• Cosmology-independent Estimate of the Hubble Constant and Spatial Curvature Using Time-delay Lenses and Quasars
• Toward a concordance teleparallel Cosmology I: Background Dynamics
• No-go guide for late-time solutions to the Hubble tension: Matter perturbations
• Measuring the sound horizon and absolute magnitude of SNIa by maximizing the consistency between low-redshift data sets
• CosmoBit: A GAMBIT module for computing cosmological observables and likelihoods
• Conservative cosmology: combining data with allowance for unknown systematics
• Sources of $H_0$-tensions in dark energy scenarios
• Constraining the dark-energy equation of state with cosmological data
• Testing modified gravity via Yukawa potential in two body problem: Analytical solution and observational constraints
• The absolute age of the globular cluster M15 using near-infrared adaptive optics images from PISCES/LBT
• TDCOSMO VI: Distance Measurements in Time-delay Cosmography under the Mass-sheet transformation
• No-go guide for the Hubble tension: late-time or local-scale new physics
• Observational Constraints in Nonlocal Gravity: the Deser-Woodard Case
• Integrated Sachs-Wolfe-galaxy cross-correlation bounds on the two branches of the minimal theory of massive gravity
• Model-independent cosmological inference after the DESI DR2 data with improved inverse distance ladder
• Generalised model-independent characterisation of strong gravitational lenses V: reconstructing the lensing distance ratio by supernovae for a general Friedmann universe
• LADDER: Revisiting the Cosmic Distance Ladder with Deep Learning Approaches and Exploring its Applications
• Measurement of the matter-radiation equality scale using the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Quasar Sample
• Fisher matrix for the one-loop galaxy power spectrum: measuring expansion and growth rates without assuming a cosmological model
• Young and Intermediate-age Distance Indicators
• Narrowing down the Hubble tension to the first two rungs of distance ladders
• Revisiting model-independent constraints on spatial curvature and cosmic ladders calibration: updated and forecast analyses
• Hubble Hullabaloo and String Cosmology
• A Hubble Constant Determination Through Quasar Time Delays and Type Ia Supernovae
• The Low Redshift survey at Calar Alto (LoRCA)
• Polarizations of CMB and the Hubble tension
• Emergence of smooth distance and apparent magnitude in a lumpy Universe
• Quantitative constraints on modified gravity paradigms
• Low redshift constraints on scale-covariant models
• Bounding the Cosmological Constant using Galactic Rotation Curves from the SPARC Dataset
• Dissecting the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions with Planck + BAO + supernova type Ia in multi-parameter cosmologies
• The BAO scale -- how standard is the standard ruler?
• Late-time cosmological constraints on three holographic dark energy models with DESI DR2 BAO and Type Ia supernovae
• Superhorizon isocurvature fluctuations relax tensions