Hints of Early Dark Energy in Planck, SPT, and ACT data: new physics or systematics?

Abstract

We investigate constraints on early dark energy (EDE) using ACT DR4, SPT-3G 2018, Planck polarization, and restricted Planck temperature data (at $\ell <650$), finding a $3.3\sigma$ preference ($\Delta {\chi }^2=-16.2$ for 3 additional degrees of freedom) for EDE over $\Lambda$CDM. The EDE contributes a maximum fractional energy density of $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)=0.163_{-0.04}^{+0.047}$ at a redshift $z_c=3357\pm 200$ and leads to a CMB inferred value of the Hubble constant $H_0=74.2_{-2.1}^{+1.9}$ km/s/Mpc. We find that Planck and ACT DR4 data provide the majority of the improvement in ${\chi }^2$, and that the inclusion of SPT-3G pulls the posterior of $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)$ away from $\Lambda$CDM. This is the first time that a moderate preference for EDE has been reported for these three combined CMB data sets. We find that including measurements of supernovae luminosity distances and the baryon acoustic oscillation standard ruler only minimally affects the preference ($3.0\sigma$), while measurements that probe the clustering of matter at late times - the lensing potential power spectrum from Planck and $f{\sigma }_8$ from BOSS - decrease the significance of the preference to 2.6$\sigma$. Conversely, adding a prior on the $H_0$ value as reported by the SH0ES collaboration increases the preference to the $4-5\sigma$ level. In the absence of this prior, the inclusion of Planck TT data at $\ell >1300$ reduces the preference from $3.0\sigma$ to $2.3\sigma$ and the constraint on $f_{\mathrm{EDE}}(z_c)$ becomes compatible with $\Lambda$CDM at $1\sigma$. We explore whether systematic errors in the Planck polarization data may affect our conclusions and find that changing the TE polarization efficiencies significantly reduces the Planck preference for EDE. More work will be necessary to establish whether these hints for EDE within CMB data alone are the sole results of systematic errors or an opening to new physics.

19 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (27)

• A Comprehensive Measurement of the Local Value of the Hubble Constant with 1 km/s/Mpc Uncertainty from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SH0ES Team
• In the Realm of the Hubble tension $-$ a Review of Solutions
• The Clustering of the SDSS DR7 Main Galaxy Sample I: A 4 per cent Distance Measure at z=0.15
• Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing
• Cosmic Distances Calibrated to 1% Precision with Gaia EDR3 Parallaxes and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry of 75 Milky Way Cepheids Confirm Tension with LambdaCDM
• Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Tensions in Perspective
• Early dark energy, the Hubble-parameter tension, and the string axiverse
• The Megamaser Cosmology Project. XIII. Combined Hubble constant constraints
• Measurements of the E-Mode Polarization and Temperature-E-Mode Correlation of the CMB from SPT-3G 2018 Data
• Why reducing the cosmic sound horizon alone can not fully resolve the Hubble tension
• Consistency tests of $\Lambda$CDM from the early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect: Implications for early-time new physics and the Hubble tension
• The Hubble Constant from Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Constraints on Pre-Recombination Early Dark Energy
• New constraint on Early Dark Energy from Planck and BOSS data using the profile likelihood
• The Parallax of Omega Centauri Measured from Gaia EDR3 and a Direct, Geometric Calibration of the Tip of the Red Giant Branch and the Hubble Constant
• Dark Energy at early times and ACT: a larger Hubble constant without late-time priors
• Comparing Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance Scales: An Independent Reduction of the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program and the Value of the Hubble Constant
• A Step in Understanding the Hubble Tension
• Constraints on $\Lambda$CDM Extensions from the SPT-3G 2018 $EE$ and $TE$ Power Spectra
• Unified galaxy power spectrum measurements from 6dFGS, BOSS, and eBOSS
• Dark Sector to Restore Cosmological Concordance
• Exploring Early Dark Energy solution to the Hubble tension with Planck and SPTPol data
• Consistency of Planck, ACT and SPT constraints on magnetically assisted recombination and forecasts for future experiments
• Constraints on Pre-Recombination Early Dark Energy from SPT-3G Public Data
• The role of CMB spectral distortions in the Hubble tension: a proof of principle
• Pseudoscalar sterile neutrino self-interactions in light of Planck, SPT and ACT data
• Breaking the degeneracy between polarization efficiency and cosmological parameters in CMB experiments

Cited by in corpus (53)

• Seven hints that early-time new physics alone is not sufficient to solve the Hubble tension
• Stress Testing $\Lambda$CDM with High-redshift Galaxy Candidates
• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Life beyond 30: probing the -20<M_UV<-17 luminosity function at 8<z<13 with the NIRCam parallel field of the MIRI Deep Survey
• Restoring cosmological concordance with early dark energy and massive neutrinos?
• The MillenniumTNG Project: The galaxy population at $z\ge 8$
• Resolving the Hubble tension with Early Dark Energy
• Updated constraints from the effective field theory analysis of BOSS power spectrum on Early Dark Energy
• Coupled and uncoupled early dark energy, massive neutrinos and the cosmological tensions
• A double take on early and interacting dark energy from JWST
• Health checkup test of the standard cosmological model in view of recent Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies experiments
• Towards hybrid inflation with $n_s=1$ in light of Hubble tension and primordial gravitational waves
• Determining the Hubble Constant without the Sound Horizon: A $3.6\%$ Constraint on $H_0$ from Galaxy Surveys, CMB Lensing and Supernovae
• Return of Harrison-Zeldovich spectrum in light of recent cosmological tensions
• Inflation, the Hubble Tension and Early Dark Energy: an alternative overview
• Constraining the spatial curvature with cosmic expansion history in a cosmological model with a non-standard sound horizon
• Cold New Early Dark Energy pulls the trigger on the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions: a simultaneous solution to both tensions without new ingredients
• Microphysics of Early Dark Energy
• A Dark Matter Trigger for Early Dark Energy Coincidence
• Multiple transitions in vacuum dark energy and $H_0$ tension
• A grounded perspective on New Early Dark Energy using ACT, SPT, and BICEP/Keck
• Probing Early Modification of Gravity with Planck, ACT and SPT
• The weak, the strong and the ugly -- A comparative analysis of interacting stepped dark radiation
• Dark energy by natural evolution: Constraining dark energy using Approximate Bayesian Computation
• Cosmological constraints on early dark energy from the full shape analysis of eBOSS DR16
• Probing neutrino interactions and dark radiation with gravitational waves
• Impact of the Hubble tension on the $r$-$n_s$ contour
• The THESAN project: connecting ionized bubble sizes to their local environments during the Epoch of Reionization
• A critical discussion on the $H_0$ tension
• New Early Dark Energy as a solution to the $H_0$ and $S_8$ tensions
• Testing the $n_s-H_0$ scaling relation with Planck-independent CMB data
• Pseudoscalar sterile neutrino self-interactions in light of Planck, SPT and ACT data
• Constraining constant and tomographic coupled dark energy with low-redshift and high-redshift probes
• Role of the Hubble Scale in the Weak Lensing vs. CMB Tension
• DE models with combined $H_0\cdot r_d$ from BAO and CMB dataset and friends
• Implication of island for inflation and primordial perturbations
• Early dark energy constraints with late-time expansion marginalization
• Does the fraction of dark matter diminish with early dark energy?
• Third-order corrections to the slow-roll expansion: calculation and constraints with Planck, ACT, SPT, and BICEP/Keck
• On the Reionization-Era Globular Cluster in Low-Mass Galaxy Eridanus II
• Explanation of high redshift luminous galaxies from JWST by early dark energy model
• Can Early Dark Energy be Probed by the High-Redshift Galaxy Abundance?
• Dark energy reconstruction analysis with artificial neural networks: Application on simulated Supernova Ia data from Rubin Observatory
• Exploring Alternative Cosmologies with the LSST: Simulated Forecasts and Current Observational Constraints
• Litmus tests of the flat $\Lambda$CDM model and model-independent measurement of $H_0{r}_{\mathrm{d}}$ with LSST and DESI
• Another look on the connections of Hubble tension with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
• Signatures of Very Early Dark Energy in the Matter Power Spectrum
• Equality scale-based and sound horizon-based analysis of the Hubble tension
• Gravitation with modified fluid Lagrangian: Variational principle and an early dark energy model
• Sound Horizon Independent Constraints on Early Dark Energy: The Role of Supernova Data
• A step in the right direction? Analyzing the Wess Zumino Dark Radiation solution to the Hubble tension
• Controlled Tension Forecasting: Quantifying Cross-Probe Biases in ${\omega }_0{\omega }_a$CDM
• The Cosmic Rush Hour: Rapid Formation of Bright, Massive, Disky, Star-Forming Galaxies as Signatures of Early-Universe Physics