Alleviating H ₀ and S ₈ Tensions Simultaneously in K-essence Cosmology

Abstract The present work begins by examining the early-Universe inflationary epoch of a special K-essence model, which incorporates a linear coupling term between the scalar field potential and the canonical Lagrangian. For the power-law potential, we both numerically and analytically prove that the inflationary parameters such as the spectral index and tensor-to-scalar ratio are compatible with the recent BICEP/Keck observations. Continuing this work, our analysis based on comparing early-Universe observations with late-Universe measurements indicates that the tension on the Hubble parameter H 0 and the growth of structure parameter S 8 can be alleviated simultaneously. More precisely, compared to the standard ΛCDM model, our model can reduce H 0 tension to roughly 2.2 σ , and the S 8 discrepancy diminishes to 0.82 σ .