Fast Radio Bursts as probes of the late-time universe: A new insight on the Hubble tension
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are bright radio transient events, a subset of which have been localized to their host galaxies. Their high dispersion measures offer valuable insights into the ionized plasma along their line of sight, enabling them to serve as probes of cosmological parameters . One of the major challenges in contemporary cosmology is the Hubble tension — an unresolved discrepancy between two independent methods of determining the Universe’s expansion rate, yielding differing values for the Hubble constant . In this study, we analyze a sample of 64 extragalactic, localized FRBs observed by various telescopes, employing Bayesian analysis with distinct likelihood functions. Our findings suggest that FRBs serve as tracers of the Hubble constant in the late-time Universe. Notably, our results exhibit smaller error bars compared to previous studies, and the derived Hubble constant with 1 σ error bars no longer overlap with those obtained from early-Universe measurements. These results underscore the continuing tension between early- and late-time measurements of the Hubble constant.
Authors
- Shruti Bhatporia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2821-4927)
- Amanda Weltman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5974-4114)
- Surajit Kalita (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3818-6037)
Institutions
- African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (ZA)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- Astronomical Observatory (RS)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physics of the Dark Universe
- Published
- 2025-04-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dark.2025.101926
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 12.70
Funders
- Simons Foundation
- National Research Foundation
- University of Capetown
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki