Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: We here investigate the observational viability of Nash gravity as an alternative to the standard $Λ$CDM cosmology. Based on Nash's embedding theorem, the model introduces orthogonal perturbations via variations in the extrinsic curvature, generating scalar-type metric perturbations directly from geometry, without the need to introduce additional fields. We confront the model with current observational data, including Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) measurements from Planck, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from DESI DR2, and recent Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) compilations. Our analysis shows that Nash gravity provides a good fit to the data, yielding a slightly higher value for the Hubble constant, $H_0 = 69.32 \pm 0.72$ km/s/Mpc, compared to the $Λ$CDM model, thus offering a potential alleviation of the $H_0$ tension. Furthermore, the model naturally predicts a suppressed growth of structure, with $S_8 \approx 0.76$ across various joint analyses, potentially alleviating the so-called $S_8$ tension, assuming that this discrepancy is not solely due to systematic effects in other independent measurements. In some cases, Nash gravity achieves a better fit to the data than the $Λ$CDM paradigm at the $2σ$ level.
DOI: 10.1103/pszr-cyy4
Authors: Abraão J. S. Capistrano, Emanuelly Silva, Rafael C. Nunes, Orlando Luongo
Institutions: Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Università di Camerino, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Brera Astronomical Observatory, University at Albany, State University of New York, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Perugia
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca, Fundação da Universidade Federal do Paraná, NextGenerationEU
OpenAlex ID: W4417440856
