Local determination of the Hubble constant and the deceleration parameter

Abstract

The determination of the Hubble constant $H_0$ from the Cosmic Microwave Background by the Planck Collaboration [Aghanim et al. 2018] is in tension at $4.2\sigma$ with respect to the local determination of $H_0$ by the SH0ES collaboration [Reid et al. 2019]. Here, we improve upon the local determination, which fixes the deceleration parameter to the standard $\Lambda$CDM model value of $q_0=-0.55$, that is, uses information from observations beyond the local universe. First, we derive the effective calibration prior on the absolute magnitude $M_B$ of Supernovae Ia, which can be used in cosmological analyses in order to avoid the double counting of low-redshift supernovae. We find $M_B=-19.2334\pm 0.0404$ mag. Then, we use the above $M_B$ prior in order to obtain a determination of the local $H_0$ which only uses local observations and only assumes the cosmological principle, that is, large-scale homogeneity and isotropy. This is achieved by adopting an uninformative flat prior for $q_0$ in the cosmographic expansion of the luminosity distance. We use the latest Pantheon sample and find $H_0=75.35\pm 1.68{\text{ km s}}^{-1}{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, which features a 2.2% uncertainty, close to the 1.9% error obtained by the SH0ES Collaboration. Our determination is at the higher tension of $4.5\sigma$ with the latest results from the Planck Collaboration that assume the $\Lambda$CDM model. Furthermore, we also constrain the deceleration parameter to $q_0=-1.08\pm 0.29$, which disagrees with Planck at the $1.9\sigma$ level. These estimations only use supernovae in the redshift range $0.023\le z\le 0.15$.

9 pages, 4 figures. Discussion and analysis improved, results updated to the latest SH0ES determination. Version accepted for publication in Physical Review Research