Examining the validity of the minimal varying speed of light model through cosmological observations: relaxing the null curvature constraint

Abstract

We revisit a consistency test for the speed of light variability, using the latest cosmological observations. This exercise can serve as a new diagnostics for the standard cosmological model and distinguish between the minimal varying speed of light in the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker universe. We deploy Gaussian processes to reconstruct cosmic distances and ages in the redshift range $0<z<2$ utilizing the Pantheon compilation of type-Ia supernova luminosity distances (SN), cosmic chronometers from differential galaxy ages (CC), and measurements of both radial and transverse modes of baryon acoustic oscillations ($r$-BAO and $a$-BAO) respectively. Such a test has the advantage of being independent of any non-zero cosmic curvature assumption - which can be degenerated with some variable speed of light models - as well as any dark energy model. We also examine the impact of cosmological priors on our analysis, such as the Hubble constant, supernova absolute magnitude, and the sound horizon scale. We find null evidence for the speed of light variability hypothesis for most choices of priors and data-set combinations. However, mild deviations are seen at $\sim 2\sigma$ confidence level for redshifts $z<1$ with some specific prior choices when $r$-BAO data is employed, and at $z>1$ with a particular reconstruction kernel when $a$-BAO data are included. Still, we ascribe no statistical significance to this result bearing in mind the degeneracy between the associated priors for combined analysis, and incompleteness of the $a$-BAO data set at higher $z$.

arXiv comment15 pages, 8 sets of figures, revised version, including a change in title, to appear in Phys. Dark Univ

References in corpus (76)

• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
• Dynamics of dark energy
• The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy
• Cosmological Constant - the Weight of the Vacuum
• The clustering of galaxies in the completed SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: cosmological analysis of the DR12 galaxy sample
• The Complete Light-curve Sample of Spectroscopically Confirmed Type Ia Supernovae from Pan-STARRS1 and Cosmological Constraints from The Combined Pantheon Sample
• 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 Completed SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Cosmological Implications from two Decades of Spectroscopic Surveys at the Apache Point observatory
• Constraints on the redshift dependence of the dark energy potential
• Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing
• A 6% measurement of the Hubble parameter at $z\sim 0.45$: direct evidence of the epoch of cosmic re-acceleration
• Cosmic Chronometers: Constraining the Equation of State of Dark Energy. I: H(z) Measurements
• Raising the bar: new constraints on the Hubble parameter with cosmic chronometers at z$\sim$2
• Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite
• Improved constraints on the expansion rate of the Universe up to z~1.1 from the spectroscopic evolution of cosmic chronometers
• Constraining Cosmological Parameters Based on Relative Galaxy Ages
• The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: Joint measurements of the expansion and growth history at z < 1
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Lyα forest of BOSS DR11 quasars
• Cosmic Distances Calibrated to 1% Precision with Gaia EDR3 Parallaxes and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry of 75 Milky Way Cepheids Confirm Tension with LambdaCDM
• KiDS-1000 Cosmology: Multi-probe weak gravitational lensing and spectroscopic galaxy clustering constraints
• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies IV: Baryon Acoustic Peak in the Line-of-Sight Direction and a Direct Measurement of H(z)
• Age-dating Luminous Red Galaxies observed with the Southern African Large Telescope
• Quasar-Lyman $\alpha$ Forest Cross-Correlation from BOSS DR11 : Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
• Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Tensions in Perspective
• Cosmology Intertwined II: The Hubble Constant Tension
• A time varying speed of light as a solution to cosmological puzzles
• Constraints on the equation of state of dark energy and the Hubble constant from stellar ages and the CMB
• Cosmology Intertwined III: $f{\sigma }_8$ and $S_8$
• Reconstruction of dark energy and expansion dynamics using Gaussian processes
• Dark Energy Survey Year 3 Results: Cosmology from Cosmic Shear and Robustness to Modeling Uncertainty
• Superluminary Universe: A Possible Solution to the Initial Value Problem in Cosmology
• Gaussian Process Cosmography
• Baryon acoustic oscillations from the complete SDSS-III Ly$\alpha$-quasar cross-correlation function at $z=2.4$
• To H0 or not to H0?
• New varying speed of light theories
• Toward a Better Understanding of Cosmic Chronometers: A new measurement of H(z) at z~0.7
• The clustering of the SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey DR14 quasar sample: a tomographic measurement of cosmic structure growth and expansion rate based on optimal redshift weights
• The Clustering of Galaxies in the SDSS-III DR9 Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Testing Deviations from $\Lambda$ and General Relativity using anisotropic clustering of galaxies
• Measuring D_A and H at z=0.35 from the SDSS DR7 LRGs using baryon acoustic oscillations
• On the use of the local prior on the absolute magnitude of Type Ia supernovae in cosmological inference
• Covariant and locally Lorentz-invariant varying speed of light theories
• `c' is the speed of light, isn't it?
• Dynamical Mechanism for Varying Light Velocity as a Solution to Cosmological Problems
• Solutions to the Quasi-flatness and Quasi-lambda Problems
• Solving the Flatness and Quasi-flatness Problems in Brans-Dicke Cosmologies with a Varying Light Speed
• A new method to build the (inverse) distance ladder
• Cosmological parameter analyses using transversal BAO data
• Measuring the speed of light with ultra-compact radio quasars
• Geometrodynamics of Variable-Speed-of-Light Cosmologies
• Scalar-Tensor Gravity Theory For Dynamical Light Velocity
• Baryon Acoustic Oscillations from the SDSS DR10 galaxies angular correlation function
• Angular Baryon Acoustic Oscillation measure at z=2.225 from the SDSS quasar survey
• Hints of a Local Matter Underdensity or Modified Gravity in the Low $z$ Pantheon data
• Does a varying speed of light solve the cosmological problems?
• BAO angular scale at z_eff = 0.11 with the SDSS blue galaxies
• Measuring the transverse baryonic acoustic scale from the SDSS DR11 galaxies
• Non-parametric reconstruction of the cosmological \textit{jerk} parameter
• Note on Varying Speed of Light Cosmologies
• Dodging the cosmic curvature to probe the constancy of the speed of light
• The minimally extended Varying Speed of Light (meVSL)
• Variable Speed of Light Cosmology, Primordial Fluctuations and Gravitational Waves
• Revisiting a non-parametric reconstruction of the deceleration parameter from combined background and the growth rate data
• Measuring the speed of light with Baryon Acoustic Oscillations
• Cosmology with relativistically varying physical constants
• Comments on "Note on varying speed of light theories"
• Vector field mediated models of dynamical light velocity
• Covariant c-flation: a variational approach
• Variation of the speed of light and a minimum speed in the scenario of an inflationary universe with accelerated expansion
• Variation of the speed of light with temperature of the expanding universe
• Testing a varying-$\Lambda$ model for dark energy within Co-varying Physical Couplings framework
• Recovering a redshift-extended VSL signal from galaxy surveys
• Varying c and Particle Horizons
• Constraining Coupling Constants' Variation with Supernovae, Quasars, and GRBs

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• Non-parametric reconstruction of cosmological observables using Gaussian Processes Regression
• Measuring the speed of light with cosmological observations: current constraints and forecasts
• Stringent constraint on the CCC+TL cosmology with $H(z)$ Measurements
• New analysis of SNeIa Pantheon Catalog: Variable speed of light as an alternative to dark energy
• A mechanism to generate varying speed of light via Higgs-dilaton coupling: Theory and cosmological applications