What it takes to solve the Hubble tension through modifications of cosmological recombination

Abstract

We construct data-driven solutions to the Hubble tension which are perturbative modifications to the fiducial $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, using the Fisher bias formalism. Taking as proof of principle the case of a time-varying electron mass and fine structure constant, and focusing first on Planck CMB data, we demonstrate that a modified recombination can solve the Hubble tension and lower $S_8$ to match weak lensing measurements. Once baryonic acoustic oscillation and uncalibrated supernovae data are included, however, it is not possible to fully solve the tension with perturbative modifications to recombination.

5+13 pages, 2+12 figures, version accepted for publication in PRL

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