A gravitational constant transition within cepheids as supernovae calibrators can solve the Hubble tension

Abstract

Abstract Local universe measurements of the Hubble constant H 0 using SNe Ia with Cepheids as calibrators yield a value of H 0 = 73.04 ± 1.04 km s-1 Mpc-1, which is in tension with the value of H 0 inferred from the Cosmic Microwave Background and other higher redshift probes. In ref. [1], the authors proposed a rapid transition in the value of the effective Newtonian gravitational constant G in order to alleviate the Hubble tension. The transition point was chosen so as to only affect distance estimates to Hubble flow SNe. However, in this study, the authors made the assumption that SNe Ia peak luminosity L increases with Chandrasekhar mass Mc . This hypothesis contradicts a previous semi-analytic study of SN light curves in the presence of a G-transition [2] which concluded that there is an inverse relationship between L and Mc . Motivated by the results of ref. [1] and [2], we propose a hypothesis of a sudden recent change in the effective Newtonian gravitational constant G at an epoch which corresponds to a smaller look-back distance between ∼ 7–80 Mpc. A transition in G at these distances would affect both our estimates of the distances to Cepheids in calibrator galaxies, as well as to the Hubble flow supernovae. Upon fitting the observational data to this hypothesis, we find three interesting results: (i) we find mild evidence for a G-transition at 22.4 Mpc (73 million years ago) which is preferred (using certain estimators) by the calibrator type Ia SNe data over no G-transition, (ii) the Hubble constant inferred under this hypothesis is in good agreement with the value obtained from the CMB for a 4% larger value of G at earlier times, thus potentially resolving the Hubble tension, (iii) we obtain a fit to the scaling relationship between SN peak luminosity L and Chandrasekhar mass Mc , as L ∝ Mc -1.68 ± 0.68, which is in good agreement with the prediction of the theoretical study of ref. [2]. We also discuss how other probes could be used to verify this transition in the value of G.