Can Hubble tension be eased by invoking a finite range for gravity?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether modifying gravity to have a finite range can resolve the discrepancy in Hubble constant measurements from early and late universe observations.

Contribution

It proposes a novel modification to gravity involving a finite range to explain the Hubble tension.

Findings

Finite range gravity could potentially reconcile different Hubble constant estimates.

The model offers an alternative explanation for the Hubble tension.

Further analysis is needed to validate the approach.

Abstract

The estimation of the Hubble constant in the past few decades has increasingly become more accurate with the advance of new techniques. But its value seems to depend on the epoch at which the measurements are made. The Planck estimate of the Hubble constant from the observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation in the early universe is about 67 km/s/Mpc, whereas that obtained from the distance indicators at the current epoch is about 73-74 km/s/Mpc. This discrepancy between the two groups of measurement is termed as the Hubble tension which has gained much attention in the past few decades with growing significance as measurements from both, the early and the late universe, studies continue to produce results with increasing precision. In this work, we propose a modification to gravity by considering a finite range gravitational field as an alternate explanation for this discrepancy in the value of the Hubble constant.