https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-12577-0
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Towards a possible solution to the Hubble tension with Horndeski gravity
1
Joint Astronomy Programme, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, CV Raman Road, 560012, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
2
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, CV Raman Road, 560012, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Received:
22
November
2023
Accepted:
18
February
2024
Published online:
2
March
2024
The Hubble tension refers to the discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant 
inferred from the cosmic microwave background observations, assuming the concordance 
CDM model of the Universe, and that from the distance ladder and other direct measurements. In order to alleviate this tension, we construct a plausible dark energy scenario, within the framework of Horndeski gravity which is one of the most general scalar–tensor theories yielding second-order equations. In our set-up, we include the self-interactions and nonminimal coupling of the dynamical dark energy scalar field which enable very interesting dynamics leading to a phantom behaviour at low redshifts along with negative dark energy densities at high redshifts. These two features together make this model a promising scenario to alleviate the Hubble tension for appropriate choices of the model parameters. Towards a consistent model building, we show that this set-up is also free from both the gradient and ghost instabilities. Finally, we confront the predictions of the model with low redshift observations from Pantheon, SH0ES, cosmic chronometers and BAO, to obtain best fit constraints on model parameters.
© The Author(s) 2024
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