Misinterpreting modified gravity as dark energy: a quantitative study

DOI10.1088/1475-7516/2022/03/042zbMATH Open1504.83008arXiv2111.02866OpenAlexW3208832752MaRDI QIDQ5099207FDOQ5099207

Authors: Yuewei Wen, Eva Nesbit, Dragan Huterer, Scott Watson 

Publication date: 31 August 2022

Published in: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Standard cosmological data analyses typically constrain simple phenomenological dark-energy parameters, for example the present-day value of the equation of state parameter, $w_0$, and its variation with scale factor, $w_a$. However, results from such an analysis cannot easily indicate the presence of modified gravity. Even if general relativity does not hold, experimental data could still be fit sufficiently well by a phenomenological $w_0{w}_a$CDM, unmodified-gravity model. Hence, it would be very useful to know if there are generic signatures of modified gravity in standard analyses. Here we present, for the first time to our knowledge, a quantitative mapping showing how modified gravity models look when (mis)interpreted within the standard unmodified-gravity analysis. Scanning through a broad space of modified-gravity (Horndeski) models, and assuming a near-future survey consisting of CMB, BAO, and SNIa observations, we report values of the best-fit set of cosmological parameters including $(w_0,w_a)$ that would be inferred if modified gravity were at work. We find that modified gravity models that can masquerade as standard gravity lead to very specific biases in standard-parameter spaces. We also comment on implications for measurements of the amplitude of mass fluctuations described by the parameter $S_8$.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.02866

zbMATH Keywords

machine learningmodified gravitydark energy theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Learning and adaptive systems in artificial intelligence (68T05) Macroscopic interaction of the gravitational field with matter (hydrodynamics, etc.) (83C55) Relativistic gravitational theories other than Einstein's, including asymmetric field theories (83D05)

Cites Work

• DYNAMICS OF DARK ENERGY
• The cosmological constant problem
• The cosmological constant
• Effective field theory of dark energy: a review
• Doppelgänger dark energy: modified gravity with non-universal couplings after GW170817

Cited In (2)

• Confronting quantum-corrected teleparallel cosmology with observations
• Is local H₀at odds with dark energy EFT?

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