Cosmology on a Gravitational Wave Background

TL;DR

This paper tests a modified gravity model incorporating a gravitational wave background, showing it aligns well with multiple cosmological observations and offers an alternative to the cosmological constant for explaining universe acceleration.

Contribution

It introduces and validates a new extended Einstein's equations model with a gravitational wave background, fitting observational data better than Lambda-CDM.

Findings

Model agrees with Cosmic chronometers, BAO, and SN Ia data.

Achieves a better fit with Δχ²=3.26 compared to ΛCDM.

Consistent with CMB and Matter Power Spectrum observations.

Abstract

It is a fact that the universe lives on a Gravitational Wave Background (GWB), which it may be in the form of extra energy, which is not contained in Einstein's field equations. In \cite{Matos:2021jef}, a new model was developed to explain the current accelerating expansion of the universe where a GWB was incorporated by extending Einstein's equations to $R_{\mu\nu}-\frac{1}{2}Rg_{\mu\nu}+\frac{2\pi^2}{{\lambda}^2}g_{\mu\nu}=\kappa ^2 T_{\mu\nu}$, where ${\lambda}$ is the Compton wavelength of the graviton. In the present work we show that this extended form agrees very well with the observations of Cosmic chronometers, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and Pantheon SN type Ia, reproducing the observational data with a $\Delta\chi^2=3.26$ in favor of the present model compared to the $\Lambda$CDM. The values favored by these observations are $\Omega_{\rm m} = 0.31 \pm 0.02$, $H_0=68 \pm 0.02$ Km/s/Mpc, $\Omega_{\rm k} = 0.001\pm 0.011$; we also find an excellent consistence of this model with the Cosmic Microwave Background and the Matter Power Spectrum. We conclude that this model is an excellent alternative to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe without incorporating the cosmological constant.