A comprehensive comparison of cosmological models from latest observational data

TL;DR

This paper compares various cosmological models using recent observational data, finding that the standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter model remains the most supported, while alternative models are less favored.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of multiple cosmological models with latest data, assessing their viability without assuming a flat universe.

Findings

LambdaCDM remains the best-fitting model

DGP model is disfavored by the data

More complex models do not outperform LambdaCDM

Abstract

We investigate in detail some popular cosmological models in light of the latest observational data, including the Union2.1 supernovae compilation, the baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey, the cosmic microwave background information from the WMAP 7-year observations along with the observational Hubble parameter data. Based on the model selection statistics such as the Akaike and the Bayesian information criterias, we compare different models to assess the worth of them. We do not assume a flat universe in the fitting. Our results show that the concordance $\Lambda$CDM model remains the best one to explain the data, while the DGP model is clearly disfavored by the data. Among these models, those whose parameters can reduce themselves to the $\Lambda$CDM model provide good fits to the data. These results indicate that for the current data, there is no obvious evidence supporting any more complex models over the simplest $\Lambda$CDM model.