Snowmass2021 - Letter of interest cosmology intertwined IV: The age of the universe and its curvature

Eleonora Di Valentino , Luis A. Anchordoqui , Özgür Akarsu , Yacine Ali-Haimoud , Luca Amendola , Nikki Arendse , Marika Asgari , Mario Ballardini , Spyros Basilakos , Elia Battistelli , Micol Benetti , Simon Birrer , François R. Bouchet (1) , Marco Bruni , Erminia Calabrese , David Camarena , Salvatore Capozziello , Angela Chen , Jens Chluba , Anton Chudaykin , Eoin Ó Colgáin , Francis-Yan Cyr-Racine , Paolo de Bernardis , Javier de Cruz Pérez , Jacques Delabrouille (2, 3) , Celia Escamilla-Rivera , Agnès Ferté , Fabio Finelli , Wendy Freedman , Noemi Frusciante , Elena Giusarma , Adrià Gómez-Valent , Will Handley , Ian Harrison , Luke Hart , Alan Heavens , Hendrik Hildebrandt , Daniel Holz , Dragan Huterer , Mikhail M. Ivanov , Shahab Joudaki , Marc Kamionkowski , Tanvi Karwal , Lloyd Knox , Suresh Kumar , Luca Lamagna , Julien Lesgourgues , Matteo Lucca , Valerio Marra , Silvia Masi , Sabino Matarrese , Arindam Mazumdar , Alessandro Melchiorri , Olga Mena , Laura Mersini-Houghton , Vivian Miranda , Cristian Moreno-Pulido , David F. Mota , Jessica Muir , Ankan Mukherjee , Florian Niedermann , Alessio Notari , Rafael C. Nunes , Francesco Pace , Andronikos Paliathanasis , Antonella Palmese , Supriya Pan , Daniela Paoletti , Valeria Pettorino (4) , Francesco Piacentini , Vivian Poulin (5) , Marco Raveri , Adam G. Riess , Vincenzo Salzano , Emmanuel N. Saridakis , Anjan A. Sen , Arman Shafieloo , Anowar J. Shajib , Joseph Silk (1) , Alessandra Silvestri , Martin S. Sloth , Tristan L. Smith , Joan Solà Peracaula , Carsten van de Bruck , Licia Verde , Luca Visinelli , Benjamin D. Wandelt (1) , Deng Wang , Jian-Min Wang , Anil K. Yadav , Weiqiang Yang

1 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
2 APC (UMR_7164) - AstroParticule et Cosmologie
3 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
4 AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112) - Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation
5 LUPM - Laboratoire Univers et Particules de Montpellier

A precise measurement of the curvature of the Universe is of prime importance for cosmology since it could not only confirm the paradigm of primordial inflation but also help in discriminating between different early-Universe scenarios. Recent observations, while broadly consistent with a spatially flat standard Λ Cold Dark Matter ( Λ CDM) model, show tensions that still allow (and, in some cases, even suggest) a few percent deviations from a flat universe. In particular, the Planck Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra, assuming the nominal likelihood, prefer a closed universe at more than 99% confidence level. While new physics could be at play, this anomaly may be the result of an unresolved systematic error or just a statistical fluctuation. However, since positive curvature allows a larger age of the Universe, an accurate determination of the age of the oldest objects provides a smoking gun in confirming or falsifying the current flat Λ CDM model.

Mots clés: cosmic background radiation: power spectrum; fluctuation: statistical; cosmological model: parameter space; curvature; dark matter: density; new physics; inflation: model; tension; anomaly; satellite: Planck

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Phénoménologie [hep-ph]

Eleonora Di Valentino, Luis A. Anchordoqui, Özgür Akarsu, Yacine Ali-Haimoud, Luca Amendola, et al.. Snowmass2021 - Letter of interest cosmology intertwined IV: The age of the universe and its curvature. Astropart.Phys., 2021, 131, pp.102607. ⟨10.1016/j.astropartphys.2021.102607⟩. ⟨hal-03143604⟩