Elucidation of 'Cosmic Coincidence'

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the cosmic coincidence problem can be explained as a selection effect based on our typicality in the universe, predicting the ratio of dark energy to matter aligns with observations without new physics.

Contribution

It introduces a non-anthropic selection effect model explaining the cosmic coincidence and predicts the dark energy to matter density ratio distribution consistent with observations.

Findings

The universe is most likely observed when dark energy and matter densities are comparable.

The ratio of dark energy to matter follows a Beta Prime distribution with predicted range.

Predicted ratio aligns with the observed value of approximately 2.23.

Abstract

In the standard cosmological model the dark energy (DE) and nonrelativistic (NR) matter densities are observationally determined to be comparable at the present time, in spite of their greatly different evolution histories. This `cosmic coincidence' enigma -- also referred to as the `why now? problem' -- relies, by its very definition, on the implicit prior expectation for our `typicality' in the cosmic (expanding) spacetime volume. Otherwise, this conundrum does not exist in the first place. It is shown here that this apparent coincidence could be explained as a non-anthropic observational selection effect: for us to be typical observers in the comoving (static) spacetime volume, the cosmic energy budget must contain a non-vanishing DE component. In addition, it is shown that irrespective of the cosmological initial conditions and assuming no `new physics', the Universe is most likely to be observed at a time when the conformal Hubble radius, $\mathcal{H}^{-1}$, attains a maximum. The latter takes place at the epoch when $\rho_{DE}$ and $\rho_{m}$, the energy densities of DE and NR matter, respectively, are comparable. Specifically, our presumed `typicality' along the conformal timeline, coupled to a few other plausible assumptions, implies that $R\equiv\rho_{DE}/\rho_{m}$ is `sampled' from a Beta Prime probability distribution function. A priori 68\% (95\%) confidence range for the ratio is $0.20<R<3.46$ ($0.033<R<17.20$), with an expectation value of $\bar{R}=3.5$. These are in agreement with the observationally inferred value, $R_{obs}=2.23$.