Cosmological Constraints on 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity and Kaniadakis Holographic Dark Energy: Implications for Black Hole Shadows

Abstract

The direct imaging of black holes by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) enables strong-field tests of gravity. We study the cosmological evolution and the black-hole shadow radius in 4D Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet (EGB) gravity coupled to Kaniadakis holographic dark energy (KHDE), adopting the future event horizon as the infrared cutoff. Using Cosmic Chronometers, Pantheon+ Type Ia supernovae, and DESI BAO data, we constrain the model with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo analysis. The best-fit values favor a phantom-like equation of state driven by Kaniadakis entropy ($c\simeq 1.18$, $\beta\simeq 2.26$), but $\beta$ remains weakly constrained ($\beta=2.26^{+0.11}_{-2.20}$), consistent with the standard holographic limit $\beta\to0$ at $1\sigma$. The EGB coupling is constrained to $\alpha\simeq -0.004$, also consistent with General Relativity ($\alpha=0$) at $1\sigma$. Guided by the posterior, we define five representative scenarios to probe the dynamical phase space. We find that the accretion history is highly sensitive to the thermodynamic sector: standard holographic cases yield monotonic evolution, whereas phantom-divide crossing leads to non-monotonic behavior in both the black hole mass and the vacuum shadow radius. Including a dispersive plasma medium, refraction dominates over intrinsic mass growth and induces an overall shrinkage of the observable shadow at high redshift; nevertheless, a residual intrinsic deviation of $\sim6\%$ (for our conservative accretion setup) persists at $z\simeq2$ relative to the $\Lambda$CDM prediction. These results indicate that, despite environmental dominance, precision population analyses of black hole shadows may help disentangle subtle dynamical dark-energy imprints from the standard cosmological paradigm.