Constraining the ΛCDM and Galileon models with recent cosmological data

¹ LAL, Univ. Paris-Sud, CNRS/IN2P3, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France
e-mail: jneveu@lal.in2p3.fr
² LERMA, UMR 8112 du CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, École Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
³ CEA, Centre de Saclay, Irfu/SPP, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁴ LPNHE, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS-IN2P3, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
⁵ Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), 2006 Sydney, Australia
⁷ Laboratoire de Physique Théorique, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, Université Paris-Saclay, 91405 Orsay, France

Received: 9 May 2016
Accepted: 10 December 2016

Abstract

Aims. The Galileon theory belongs to the class of modified gravity models that can explain the late-time accelerated expansion of the Universe. In previous works, cosmological constraints on the Galileon model were derived, both in the uncoupled case and with a disformal coupling of the Galileon field to matter. There, we showed that these models agree with the most recent cosmological data. In this work, we used updated cosmological data sets to derive new constraints on Galileon models, including the case of a constant conformal Galileon coupling to matter. We also explored the tracker solution of the uncoupled Galileon model.

Methods. After updating our data sets, especially with the latest Planck data and baryonic acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements, we fitted the cosmological parameters of the ΛCDM and Galileon models. The same analysis framework as in our previous papers was used to derive cosmological constraints, using precise measurements of cosmological distances and of the cosmic structure growth rate.

Results. We show that all tested Galileon models are as compatible with cosmological data as the ΛCDM model. This means that present cosmological data are not accurate enough to distinguish clearly between the two theories. Among the different Galileon models, we find that a conformal coupling is not favoured, contrary to the disformal coupling which is preferred at the 2.3σ level over the uncoupled case. The tracker solution of the uncoupled Galileon model is also highly disfavoured owing to large tensions with supernovae and Planck+BAO data. However, outside of the tracker solution, the general uncoupled Galileon model, as well as the general disformally coupled Galileon model, remain the most promising Galileon scenarios to confront with future cosmological data. Finally, we also discuss constraints coming from the Lunar Laser Ranging experiment and gravitational wave speed of propagation.