Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:48:27.446Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trouble with Hubble: Status of the Big Bang Models

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

Chris Smeenk
Chris Smeenk*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Rotman Institute of Philosophy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Cosmologists take the $\Lambda$CDM model to be a permanent contribution to our knowledge of the universe, based on the success of precision cosmology. Consistent, independent determinations of the parameters in this model encourage physicists to take it seriously. This stance incurs an obligation to resolve any discrepancies by reanalyzing measurements or adding further complexity. Recent observations in cosmology indicate a tension between “local” and “global” determinations of the Hubble constant. Here I argue that this tension illustrates one of the benefits of taking the model seriously and consider the challenges to making a case for the permanence of $\Lambda$CDM.

Type
Symposia Paper
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 5 , December 2022 , pp. 1265 - 1274
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernal, José Luis, Verde, Licia, and Riess, Adam G.. 2016. “The Trouble with H0 .” Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics 2016 (10):Article 019.10.1088/1475-7516/2016/10/019CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chang, Hasok. 2004. Inventing Temperature: Measurement and Scientific Progress. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/0195171276.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Valentino, Eleonora, Mena, Olga, Pan, Supriya, Visinelli, Luca, Yang, Weiquiang, Melchiorri, Alessandro, Mota, David F., Riess, Adam G., and Silk, Joseph. 2021. “In the Realm of the Hubble Tension.” arXiv:2103.01183.Google Scholar
Ellis, George F. 1984. “Relativistic Cosmology: Its Nature, Aims and Problems.” In General Relativity and Gravitation, 215–88. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Freedman, Wendy L. 2021. “Measurements of the Hubble Constant: Tensions in Perspective.” Astrophysical Journal 919 (1):Article 16.10.3847/1538-4357/ac0e95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, Wendy L., Madore, Barry F., Hatt, Dylan, Hoyt, Taylor J., Jang, In-Sung, Beaton, Rachael L., Burns, Christopher R. etal. 2019. “The Carnegie–Chicago Hubble Program. VIII.” Astrophysical Journal 882 (1):Article 34.Google Scholar
Isaac, Alistair M. 2019. “Epistemic Loops and Measurement Realism.” Philosophy of Science 86 (5):930–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyake, Teru, and Smith, George E.. 2021. “Realism, Physical Meaningfulness, and Molecular Spectroscopy.” In Contemporary Scientific Realism: The Challenge from the History of Science, edited by Timothy D. Lyons and Peter Vickers, 159–182. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780190946814.003.0008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peebles, Phillip James Edwin. 2020. Cosmology’s Century: An Inside History of Our Modern Understanding of the Universe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Riess, Adam G., Casertano, Stefano, Yuan, Wenlong, Bowers, J. Bradley, Macri, Lucas, Zinn, Joel C., and Scolnic, Dan. 2021. “Cosmic Distances Calibrated to 1% Precision with GAIA EDR3 Parallaxes and Hubble Space Telescope Photometry of 75 Milky Way Cepheids Confirm Tension with Lambda CDM.” Astrophysical Journal Letters 908 (1): Article L6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritson, Sophie, and Staley, Kent. 2021. “How Uncertainty Can Save Measurement from Circularity and Holism.” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A 85:155–65.10.1016/j.shpsa.2020.10.004CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, George E., and Seth, Raghav. 2020. Brownian Motion and Molecular Reality: A Study in Theory-Mediated Measurement. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stein, Howard. 1989. “Yes, But …: Some Skeptical Remarks on Realism and Anti-realism.” Dialectica 43 (1/2):47–65.10.1111/j.1746-8361.1989.tb00930.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tal, Eran. 2016. “Making Time: A Study in the Epistemology of Measurement.” British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 67 (1):297–335.10.1093/bjps/axu037CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Fraassen, Bas C. 2009. “The Perils of Perrin, in the Hands of Philosophers.” Philosophical Studies 143 (1):5–24.10.1007/s11098-008-9319-9CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weinberg, Steven. 2008. Cosmology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar