Prospect for cosmological parameter estimation using future Hubble parameter measurements

TL;DR

This paper evaluates how future measurements of the Hubble parameter from WFIRST and E-ELT will improve constraints on cosmological parameters, especially dark energy, using current and simulated data.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential impact of upcoming WFIRST and E-ELT observations on refining dark energy parameter estimates.

Findings

Current Hubble data provides good parameter constraints.

WFIRST slightly improves dark energy constraints.

E-ELT significantly enhances dark energy parameter estimation.

Abstract

We constrain cosmological parameters using only Hubble parameter data and quantify the impact of future Hubble parameter measurements on parameter estimation for the most typical dark energy models. We first constrain cosmological parameters using 52 current Hubble parameter data including the Hubble constant measurement from the Hubble Space Telescope. Then we simulate the baryon acoustic oscillation signals from WFIRST (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope) covering the redshift range of $z\in [0.5, 2]$ and the redshift drift data from E-ELT (European Extremely Large Telescope) in the redshift range of $z\in [2,5]$. It is shown that solely using the current Hubble parameter data could give fairly good constraints on cosmological parameters. Compared to the current Hubble parameter data, with the WFIRST observation the $H(z)$ constraints on dark energy would be improved slightly, while with the E-ELT observation the $H(z)$ constraints on dark energy is enormously improved.