Constraining Early Dark Energy cosmological models with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Abstract
The recent cosmological picture contains a significant tension indicating that our standard CDM picture may be incomplete. Early Dark Energy models can alleviate the Hubble tension, by assuming an early acceleration that could explain the divergence between the early and late-time cosmological data. We investigate the implications of Early Dark Energy models on the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis processes by considering several cosmological models, including a model assuming a simple cosmological constant, alongside with varying equations of state dark energy models. We construct a simulator through a nested sampling algorithm, with the help of which we estimate the upper bounds for model parameters, and determine the maximum allowable dark energy density contribution during the radiation-dominated era. Our results are obtained through the \href{https://github.com/croi900/eden}{eden} program. We show that for a linear or polytropic equation of state, the dark energy density is constrained to less than MeV and MeV, respectively, at the 95\% confidence level. Furthermore, we identify a temperature-dependent equation of state of dark energy as the most physically compelling framework, which remains consistent with primordial abundances for coupling parameters . This model successfully allows for high-temperature deviations from the standard CDM expansion history, while rapidly diluting to obtain standard general relativistic results in the weak freeze-out era.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.26749,
title = {Constraining Early Dark Energy cosmological models with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis},
author = {Teodora M. Matei and Cristian Croitoru and Tiberiu Harko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.26749},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
19 pages, 18 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of the Dark Universe