Improved constraints on the expansion rate of the Universe up to z ∼ 1.1 from the spectroscopic evolution of cosmic chronometers

By Michele Moresco, A. Cimatti, Raul Jimenez, L. Pozzetti, G. Zamorani, M. Bolzonella, J. Dunlop, F. Lamareille, M. Mignoli, H. Pearce and 58 more. 2012

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We present new improved constraints on the Hubble parameter H(z) in the redshift range 0.15 < z < 1.1, obtained from the differential spectroscopic evolution of early-type galaxies as a function of redshift. We extract a large sample of early-type galaxies ( ∼ 11000) from several spectroscopic surveys, spanning almost 8 billion years of cosmic lookback time (0.15 < z < 1.42). We select the most massive, red elliptical galaxies, passively evolving and without signature of ongoing star formation. Those galaxies can be used as standard cosmic chronometers, as firstly proposed by Jimenez & Loeb (2002), whose differential age evolution as a function of cosmic time directly probes H(z). We analyze the 4000 Å break (D4000) as a function of redshift, use stellar population synthesis models to theoretically calibrate the dependence of the differential age evolution on the differential D4000, and estimate the Hubble parameter taking into account both statistical and systematical errors. We provide 8 new measurements of H(z) (see table 4), and determine its change in H(z) to a precision of 5–12% mapping homogeneously the redshift range up to z ∼ 1.1; for the first time, we place a constraint on H(z) at z≠0 with a precision comparable with the one achieved for the Hubble constant (about 5–6% at z ∼ 0.2), and covered a redshift range (0.5 < z < 0.8) which is crucial to distinguish many different quintessence cosmologies. These measurements have been tested to best match a ΛCDM model, clearly providing a statistically robust indication that the Universe is undergoing an accelerated expansion. This method shows the potentiality to open a new avenue in constrain a variety of alternative cosmologies, especially when future surveys (e.g. Euclid) will open the possibility to extend it up to z ∼ 2.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6ea5b0d03821450d7807c41a765385fb38a6cf24

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Citations in the corpus

The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: joint measurements of the expansion and growth history at z < 1 (2012, background): “We note that the Hubble expansion rate as a function of redshift may also be inferred from the relative ages of passively-evolving galaxies (Jimenez & Loeb 2002, Stern et al. 2010, Carson & Nichol 2010, Moresco et al. 2012).”
The Cardassian expansion revisited: constraints from updated Hubble parameter measurements and type Ia supernova data (2017, methodology): “This technique compares the ages of early-type-galaxies (i.e., without ongoing star formation) with similar metallicity and separated by a small redshift interval (for instance, Moresco et al. 2012, measure ∆z ∼ 0.04 at z < 0.4 and ∆z ∼ 0.3 at z > 0.4).”
Baryon Acoustic Oscillations in the Ly-\alpha\ forest of BOSS quasars (2012, methodology): “Another approach to determiningH(z) uses the evolution of stellar populations as a clock to inferdt/dz (Stern et al., 2010; Moresco et al., 2012).”
Toward a Better Understanding of Cosmic Chronometers: A New Measurement of H(z) at z ∼ 0.7 (2021, methodology): “In particular, the most comparable measurements at this redshift are both from Moresco et al. (2012) using the D4000 method.”
Four new observational H(z) data from luminous red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release seven (2012, methodology): “One is a theoretically good method to obtain the age of LRG in Moresco et al. (2012).”
A 6% measurement of the Hubble parameter at z∼0.45: direct evidence of the epoch of cosmic re-acceleration (2016, methodology): “Hubble parameter constraints obtained with M11 models, compared with various literature data [11, 12, 13, 67, 68].”
Hubble Parameter and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Measurement Constraints on the Hubble Constant, the Deviation from the Spatially Flat ΛCDM Model, the Deceleration–Acceleration Transition Redshift, and Spatial Curvature (2017, background): “Current H(z) data covers a large redshift range, 0.07 z 2.36 (Simon et al. 2005; Stern et al. 2010; Blake et al. 2012; Moresco et al. 2012; Font-Ribera et al. 2014; Delubac et al. 2015; Moresco 2015; Moresco et al. 2016; Alam et al. 2017), larger than that covered by the Type Ia supernovae.”
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration (2012, background): “The state-of-the art observational study is the analysis of ∼ 11, 000 early-type galaxies from several large surveys by Moresco et al. (2012).”
Possible signals of vacuum dynamics in the Universe (2017, methodology): “In this work, we fit the ΛCDM, XCDM, CPL and the three DVMs to the cosmological data from type Ia supernovae c© 0000 RAS, MNRAS 000, 000–000 (Betoule et al. 2014), BAOs (Beutler et al. 2011; Kazin et al. 2014; Ross et al. 2015; Gil-Maŕın et al. 2017; Delubac et al. 2015; Aubourg et al. 2015), the v”
HUBBLE PARAMETER MEASUREMENT CONSTRAINTS ON THE COSMOLOGICAL DECELERATION–ACCELERATION TRANSITION REDSHIFT (2013, background): “…great weight because of the small, 3.6%, uncertainty, but 9 of our 10 highredshift measurements from Simon et al. (2005), Stern et al. (2010), and Moresco et al. (2012) include three 11%, 13%, and 14% measurements from Moresco et al. (2012) and three 10% measurements from Simon et al. (2005),…”
HUBBLE PARAMETER MEASUREMENT CONSTRAINTS ON THE REDSHIFT OF THE DECELERATION–ACCELERATION TRANSITION, DYNAMICAL DARK ENERGY, AND SPACE CURVATURE (2016, methodology): “NEW HUBBLE PARAMETER DATA COMPILATION In Table 1 we collect 38 Hubble parameter H(z) measurements from Simon et al. (2005), Stern et al. (2010), Moresco et al. (2012), Blake et al. (2012), Zhang et al. (2012), Font-Ribera et al. (2014), Delubac et al. (2015), Moresco (2015), Moresco et al. (2016),…”
Setting the Stage for Cosmic Chronometers. II. Impact of Stellar Population Synthesis Models Systematics and Full Covariance Matrix (2020, methodology): “…resulting slope, i.e., A(D4000n) at a fixed metallicity, with a fifth-order polynomial, A(D4000n) = 5∑ k=0 akD4000 k n (B5) limiting the analysis to the range D4000n > 1.5, as this range matches that spanned by current datasets for CCs (see Moresco et al. 2012b; Moresco 2015; Moresco et al. 2016b).”
On the Hubble Constant Tension in the SNe Ia Pantheon Sample (2021, background): “…2014; Scolnic et al. 2018), Cepheids (Riess et al. 2019), cosmic chronometer probes for the expansion rate of the parameter H(z) (Stern et al. 2010; Moresco et al. 2012; Gomez-Valent & Amendola 2018), cosmic microwave background (CMB) fluctuations (Bennett et al. 2003; Hinshaw et al. 2013; Ade et…”