Challenges to a sharp change in $G$ as a solution to the Hubble tension

Abstract

It has been proposed that the gravitational constant $G$ abruptly decreased around 130 Myr ago, making Type Ia supernovae (SNe) in the Hubble flow intrinsically brighter than those in host galaxies with Cepheid distances. This would make Hubble flow SNe more distant, causing redshifts to rise slower with distance, potentially solving the Hubble tension. We explore a wide range of unattractive consequences of this ``$G$ step model'' (GSM). We find that since the luminosities of Sun-like stars scale as approximately $G^{5.6}$, the Solar luminosity would have dropped substantially 130 Myr ago in this scenario, likely pushing Earth into a planetary glaciation. However, there was no Snowball Earth episode in the last 500 Myr. The GSM also implies that the length of a year would have abruptly increased by about 10%, but the number of days per year has evolved broadly continuously according to geochronometry and cyclostratigraphy. The GSM would considerably alter stellar evolution, causing the Sun to have exhausted about 2/3 of its fuel supply rather than 1/2. This would make the Sun's helioseismic age exceed that of the oldest meteorite samples, but these agree excellently in practice. The expected age of the Universe also agrees well with that of the oldest Galactic stars assuming constant $G$. The GSM however implies these stars are younger, creating a lack of stars from the first 3 Gyr of cosmic history. These arguments pose significant challenges to models seeking to resolve the Hubble tension through a transition in $G$.

9 pages, 2 figures, no tables. Published in MNRAS in this form

References in corpus (64)

• Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger
• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• 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 Pantheon+ Analysis: Cosmological Constraints
• The Reddening-Free Decline Rate Versus Luminosity Relationship for Type Ia Supernovae
• The Ghost of Sagittarius and Lumps in the Halo of the Milky Way
• Varying constants, Gravitation and Cosmology
• SPARC: Mass Models for 175 Disk Galaxies with Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves
• Great Circle tidal streams: evidence for a nearly spherical massive dark halo around the Milky Way
• One Law To Rule Them All: The Radial Acceleration Relation of Galaxies
• The Megamaser Cosmology Project. XIII. Combined Hubble constant constraints
• Seven hints that early-time new physics alone is not sufficient to solve the Hubble tension
• Setting the Stage for Cosmic Chronometers. II. Impact of Stellar Population Synthesis Models Systematics and Full Covariance Matrix
• $H_0$ from cosmic chronometers and Type Ia supernovae, with Gaussian Processes and the novel Weighted Polynomial Regression method
• Local determination of the Hubble constant and the deceleration parameter
• Spectroscopic confirmation of two luminous galaxies at $z\sim 14$
• Cosmological parameters derived from the final (PR4) Planck data release
• Consistency tests of $\Lambda$CDM from the early integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect: Implications for early-time new physics and the Hubble tension
• Astrophysical Tests of Modified Gravity: Constraints from Distance Indicators in the Nearby Universe
• Evidence for a ~300 Mpc Scale Under-density in the Local Galaxy Distribution
• Fitting the radial acceleration relation to individual SPARC galaxies
• A combined analysis of the $H_0$ late time direct measurements and the impact on the Dark Energy sector
• Cluster Cepheids with High Precision Gaia Parallaxes, Low Zeropoint Uncertainties, and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry
• A rapid transition of $G_{\mathrm{eff}}$ at $z_t\simeq 0.01$ as a solution of the Hubble and growth tensions
• A local resolution of the Hubble tension: The impact of screened fifth forces on the cosmic distance ladder
• Setting the Stage for Cosmic Chronometers. I. Assessing the Impact of Young Stellar Populations on Hubble Parameter Measurements
• 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
• The KBC void and Hubble tension contradict $\Lambda$CDM on a Gpc scale $-$ Milgromian dynamics as a possible solution
• A new method to build the (inverse) distance ladder
• Modified Gravity Makes Galaxies Brighter
• JWST early Universe observations and ΛCDM cosmology
• Has JWST already falsified dark-matter-driven galaxy formation?
• The Novel Probes Project -- Tests of Gravity on Astrophysical Scales
• Testing Screened Modified Gravity
• Hubble tension or a transition of the Cepheid SnIa calibrator parameters?
• The impact of the cosmic variance on $H_0$ on cosmological analyses
• Type Ia supernovae, standardisable candles, and gravity
• Constraining the time variation of Newton's constant $G$ with gravitational-wave standard sirens and supernovae
• Stars In Other Universes: Stellar structure with different fundamental constants
• Stellar Oscillations in Modified Gravity
• Combining pre- and post-recombination new physics to address cosmological tensions: case study with varying electron mass and sign-switching cosmological constant
• Hints for a gravitational constant transition in Tully-Fisher data
• Screened fifth forces lower the TRGB-calibrated Hubble constant too
• Planck constraints on scalar-tensor cosmology and the variation of the gravitational constant
• Asteroseismic constraints on the cosmic-time variation of the gravitational constant from an ancient main-sequence star
• A simultaneous solution to the Hubble tension and observed bulk flow within 250 $h^{-1}$ Mpc
• Cosmological constraints on the gravitational constant
• Screened Fifth Forces Mediated by Dark Matter-Baryon Interactions: Theory and Astrophysical Probes
• Can varying the gravitational constant alleviate the tensions ?
• Cosmological constraints on scalar-tensor gravity and the variation of the gravitational constant
• Newest measurements of Hubble constant from DESI 2024 BAO observations
• A gravitational constant transition within cepheids as supernovae calibrators can solve the Hubble tension
• Cascading Dark Energy
• The redshift dependence of the inferred $H_0$ in a local void solution to the Hubble tension
• Impact of symmetron screening on the Hubble tension: new constraints using cosmic distance ladder data
• Status Report on the Chicago-Carnegie Hubble Program (CCHP): Measurement of the Hubble Constant Using the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes
• On the fundamentality of the radial acceleration relation for late-type galaxy dynamics
• The underlying radial acceleration relation
• Imprint of the magnetic activity cycle on solar asteroseismic characterisation based on 26 years of GOLF and BiSON data
• Effects of a Late Gravitational Transition on Gravitational Waves and Anticipated Constraints
• The Tip of the Red Giant Branch Distance Ladder and the Hubble Constant
• Constraints on the Hubble and matter density parameters with and without modelling the CMB anisotropies
• Surface Brightness Fluctuations

Cited by in corpus (2)

• The CosmoVerse White Paper: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics
• A Review on Resolving the Hubble Tension via Late-Universe Physics