The Dark Side of the Universe after Planck

TL;DR

This paper analyzes tensions between Planck data and other astrophysical observations within the ΛCDM and wCDM models, exploring dark radiation and dark energy properties, and finds evidence favoring phantom-like dark energy.

Contribution

It demonstrates how introducing dark radiation and a phantom-like dark energy component can alleviate dataset tensions and provides constraints on these parameters.

Findings

Dark radiation can relax the H_0 tension.

A phantom-like dark energy is preferred at over 95% CL.

No significant evidence for evolving dark energy equation of state.

Abstract

Recently released Planck data implies a smaller Hubble constant $H_0$ than that from Hubble Space Telescope project (HST) and a larger percentage of the matter components $\Omega_m$ compared to Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) in $\Lambda$CDM model. In this paper we found that even though the tension on $H_0$ between Planck and HST can be relaxed if the dark radiation is introduced ($\Delta N_{\rm eff}=0.536_{-0.224}^{+0.229}$ at $68\%$ CL from the datasets of Planck+WMAP Polarization (WP)+baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO)+the combination of supernova Union2.1 compilation of 580 SNe (Union2.1)+HST), $\Omega_m$ from Planck is still not nicely compatible with that from SNLS. The tensions between Planck and other astrophysical datasets can be significantly relaxed in $w$CDM model, and the combination of these datasets prefers a phantom-like dark energy at more than $95\%$ CL: $w=-1.15\pm 0.07$ and $w=-1.16\pm 0.06$ at $68\%$ CL from Planck+WP+BAO+Union2.1+HST and Planck+WP+BAO+SNLS+HST respectively. From the statistical point of view, there is no evidence for a time-evolving equation of state ($\Delta \chi^2=-0.3$ compared to a constant equation of state for the combination of Planck+WP+BAO+SNLS+HST).