Revisit of cosmic age problem

TL;DR

This paper examines the cosmic age problem by analyzing old globular clusters and a high-redshift quasar within standard and interacting dark energy cosmological models, finding persistent tensions with observations.

Contribution

It introduces nine new globular clusters into the cosmic age problem analysis and evaluates the impact of interacting dark energy models on resolving the issue.

Findings

Five globular clusters and one high-z quasar are in tension with current cosmological data.

Interacting dark energy models do not fully resolve the cosmic age problem.

Standard cosmology faces challenges explaining the ages of certain old objects.

Abstract

We investigate the cosmic age problem associated with 9 extremely old globular clusters in M31 galaxy and 1 very old high-$z$ quasar APM 08279 + 5255 at $z=3.91$. These 9 globular clusters have not been used to study the cosmic age problem in the previous literature. By evaluating the age of the universe in the $\Lambda$CDM model with the observational constraints from the SNIa, the BAO, the CMB, and the independent $H_0$ measurements, we find that the existence of 5 globular clusters and 1 high-$z$ quasar are in tension (over 2$\sigma$ confidence level) with the current cosmological observations. So if the age estimates of these objects are correct, the cosmic age puzzle still remains in the standard cosmology. Moreover, we extend our investigations to the cases of the interacting dark energy models. It is found that although the introduction of the interaction between dark sectors can give a larger cosmic age, the interacting dark energy models still have difficulty to pass the cosmic age test.