Toyokazu Sekiguchi, Tomo Takahashi

We show that the $H_0$ tension can be resolved by making recombination earlier, keeping the fit to cosmic microwave background (CMB) data almost intact. We provide a suite of general necessary conditions to give a good fit to CMB data while realizing a high value of $H_0$ suggested by local measurements. As a concrete example for a successful scenario with early recombination, we demonstrate that a model with time-varying $m_e$ can indeed satisfy all the conditions. We further show that such a model can also be well fitted to low-$z$ distance measurements of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and type-Ia supernovae (SNeIa) with a simple extension of the model. Time-varying $m_e$ in the framework of $\Omega_k\Lambda$CDM is found to be a sufficient and excellent example as a solution to the $H_0$ tension, yielding $H_0=72.3_{-2.8} ^{+2.7}\,$km/sec/Mpc from the combination of CMB, BAO and SNeIa data even without incorporating any direct local $H_0$ measurements. Apart from the $H_0$ tension, this model is also favored from the viewpoint of the CMB lensing anomaly.

Claudia de Rham, Andrew J. Tolley

Within the low-energy effective field theories of QED and gravity, the low-energy speed of light or that of gravitational waves can typically be mildly superluminal in curved spacetimes. Related to this, small scattering time advances relative to the curved background can emerge from known effective field theory coefficients for photons or gravitons. We clarify why these results are not in contradiction with causality, analyticity or Lorentz invariance, and highlight various subtleties that arise when dealing with superluminalities and time advances in the gravitational context. Consistent low energy effective theories are shown to self-protect by ensuring that any time advance and superluminality calculated within the regime of validity of the effective theory is necessarily unresolvable, and cannot be argued to lead to a macroscopically larger lightcone. Such considerations are particularly relevant for putting constraints on cosmological and gravitational effective field theories and we provide explicit criteria to be satisfied so as to ensure causality.

Karsten Jedamzik, Levon Pogosian

The standard cosmological model determined from the accurate cosmic microwave background measurements made by the Planck satellite implies a value of the Hubble constant $H_0$ that is $4.4$ standard deviations lower than the one determined from Type Ia supernovae. The Planck best fit model also predicts higher values of the matter density fraction $\Omega_m$ and clustering amplitude $S_8$ compared to those obtained from the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 data. Here we show that accounting for the enhanced recombination rate due to additional small-scale inhomogeneities in the baryon density may solve both the $H_0$ and the $S_8-\Omega_m$ tensions. The additional baryon inhomogeneities can be induced by primordial magnetic fields present in the plasma prior to recombination. The required field strength to solve the Hubble tension is just what is needed to explain the existence of galactic, cluster, and extragalactic magnetic fields without relying on dynamo amplification. Our results show clear evidence for this effect and motivate further detailed studies of primordial magnetic fields, setting several well-defined targets for future observations.

Ferdinando Gliozzi

We combine the large-$c$ ST modular bootstrap equations with the Cardy formula for the asymptotic growth of the density of states to prove that any $2d$ unitary, compact, conformal field theory (CFT) with no higher spin conserved currents leads to conflicting inequalities whenever the entire spectrum of non-trivial primaries lies above the BTZ threshold. As a consequence, the holographic dual of $3d$ pure gravity, if it exists, cannot be a $2d$ CFT. Consistent solutions of ST bootstrap equations require additional primaries lying below the BTZ threshold. The lowest non-trivial primary necessarily has odd spin