Constraining Dark Energy from Local Group dynamics

Abstract

This Letter develops a method to constrain the Cosmological Constant $\Lambda$ from binary galaxies, focusing on the Milky Way and Andromeda. We provide an analytical solution to the two-body problem with $\Lambda$ and show that the ratio between the Keplerian period and $T_{\Lambda }=2\pi /(c\sqrt{\Lambda })\approx 63.2$ Gyr controls the importance of effects from the Cosmological Constant. The Andromeda-Milky Way orbit has a period of $\sim 20$ Gyr and so Dark Energy has to be taken into account. Using the current best mass estimates of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, we find the Cosmological Constant value based only on the Local Group dynamics to be lower then $5.44$ times the value obtained by Planck. With future astrometric measurements, the bound on the Cosmological Constant can be reduced to $\left(1.67\pm 0.79\right){\Lambda }_{\mathrm{PL}}$. Our results offer the prospects of constraints on $\Lambda$ over very different scales than previously. The Local Group provides also a completely novel platform to test alternative theories of gravity. We illustrate this by deriving bounds on scalar-tensor theories of gravity over Megaparsec scales.

arXiv commentApJL, submitted

References in corpus (19)

• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
• Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics Beyond LambdaCDM
• The M31 Velocity Vector. II. Radial Orbit Towards the Milky Way and Implied Local Group Mass
• Masses for the Local Group and the Milky Way
• A dynamical model of the local cosmic expansion
• Standard Clocks, Orbital Precession and the Cosmological Constant
• Weighing the Local Group in the Presence of Dark Energy
• Solar System motions and the cosmological constant: a new approach
• The Local Group Mass in the light of Gaia
• The proper motion of Andromeda from Gaia eDR3: confirming a nearly radial orbit
• JWST-TST Proper Motions: I. High-Precision NIRISS Calibration and Large Magellanic Cloud Kinematics
• Determination of the Local Hubble Constant from Virgo Infall Using TRGB Distances
• Implications of the Milky Way travel velocity for dynamical mass estimates of the Local Group
• Estimating the Mass of the Local Group using Machine Learning Applied to Numerical Simulations
• Interplay Between Gravity and Quintessence: A Set of New GR Solutions
• Local Group timing argument and virial theorem mass estimators from cosmological simulations
• The Two Body Problem in the Presence of Dark Energy and Modified Gravity: Application to the Local Group
• Tracking the Local Group Dynamics by Extended Gravity
• Timing Argument take on the Milky Way and Andromeda past-encounter

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Negative cosmological constant in the dark energy sector: tests from JWST photometric and spectroscopic observations of high-redshift galaxies
• $\Lambda$CDM Tensions: Localising Missing Physics through Consistency Checks
• Growth of structures using redshift space distortion in $f(T)$ Cosmology
• Solar chameleons: Novel channels
• Imprints of screened dark energy on nonlocal quantum correlations
• Dark Energy as a Critical Period in Binary Motion: Bounds from Multi-scale Binaries
• A possible role for the merger of clusters/voids in the cosmological expansion
• Probing for Lorentz Invariance Violation in Pantheon Plus Dominated Cosmology
• Testing non-local gravity through Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies kinematics
• Multiscale Cosmic Curvature: from Local Structures to Cosmology
• Bounding the Cosmological Constant using Galactic Rotation Curves from the SPARC Dataset
• The interface of gravity and dark energy