arXiv subjects

David F. Mota

Publications and source records attributed to David F. Mota.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cosmological Signatures of Curvature-Coupled Dark Energy

We study a curvature-coupled dark energy model that can modify cosmological evolution both before recombination and during the late-time accelerated era. The model belongs to the class of scalar-tensor theories, in which a quintessence field is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar. We specify the model through a shifted quartic coupling, $f(φ)=α(φ^2-φ_{\rm today}^2)^2$, and an inverse power-law potential, $V(φ)=Λφ^{-σ}$, where $φ_{\rm today}$ is a constant fixed by requiring the effective Planck mass to recover its present-day normalization. We implement the model in a modified version of $\mathtt{hi\_class}$ and compute its background and linear cosmological predictions. This specific form of non-minimal coupling allows an effective crossing of the phantom divide at late times while naturally suppressing deviations from standard gravity today and satisfying local gravity constraints. At the same time, the scalar field can modify the expansion history before recombination, shifting the acoustic scale in the direction required to alleviate the $H_0$ tension, while remaining dynamically relevant as dark energy at low redshift. For the parameter choices studied here, we find tens-of-percent deviations from $Λ$CDM in the expansion history, matter clustering, and metric-potential spectra. The modified evolution of the gravitational potentials leaves characteristic signatures in relativistic observables, with weak-lensing power suppressed by $\mathcal{O}(20$-$40\%)$ at low multipoles and order-unity changes in the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal. Together, these results reveal a broad, scale-dependent phenomenology that motivates both a full parameter-space analysis and an extension of the present linear treatment to a dedicated non-linear $N$-body implementation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Spherical collapse and cluster number counts in DHOST theories that pass the constraints from gravitational waves

We investigate the spherical collapse model and the abundance of galaxy clusters in a class of degenerate higher-order scalar--tensor (DHOST) theories in which gravitational waves do not decay into scalar perturbations and which are consistent with current constraints from gravitational-wave observations. We find that deviations from Einstein gravity can become significant at late times when the background universe is close to the scaling regime during the matter-dominated epoch. These deviations suppress the growth of linear matter perturbations on small scales while increasing the extrapolated linear density contrast at collapse, obtained from the spherical collapse model. Using the analytic mass function, we compute the corresponding cluster number counts. The minimum mass threshold in the mass integration for each redshift bin is determined by matching the predicted number counts in the $Λ$CDM model with those inferred from the eROSITA survey. We find that the cluster abundance reaches its maximum at low redshift bin, and that the number of clusters in the highest redshift bin is suppressed as the deviation from Einstein gravity becomes larger. The parameters of the theory are chosen such that the deviation from Einstein gravity at present is consistent with the local astrophysical bounds from binary pulsar observations. We find that even under such strict constraints, the upper bound on the deviation leads to lower predicted number counts compared with the Poisson error of the eROSITA survey results. However, this may be a consequence of the uncertainties in computing the number counts for the DHOST theories using the spherical collapse model and the analytical mass function. In general, it may be concluded that the suppression of the cluster number counts is a consequence of the enhancement of the extrapolated linear density contrast.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

A Sequentially-Valid Reanalysis of DESI's Dynamical Dark Energy Signal

Surveys such as DESI release data in stages, and each release invites a fresh assessment of whether dark energy is consistent with a cosmological constant. Standard Wilks-based $σ$ values are interpreted as if the test were performed only once, yet revisiting the same question at DR1, DR2, DR3, and beyond inflates the chance of an apparently significant fluctuation. We reanalyse the DESI BAO evidence for dynamical dark energy using an e-process, a likelihood-ratio-based measure of evidence that remains valid under repeated looks at accumulating data: it controls the false-detection probability under continued testing across releases with no trials-factor penalty. Applied to the DESI DR1$\to$DR2 BAO sequence, the result depends strongly on which departures from $Λ$CDM the test is designed to detect. For a pre-specified alternative aligned with the DR2-preferred direction, the running evidence reaches $M_{DR2} = 33.97$, crossing an illustrative 5% threshold of 20. The evidence is concentrated almost entirely in the LRG2 redshift bin, and removing that bin reduces the running e-value to $M = 0.49$, mildly favouring $Λ$CDM. When allowing any of the seven bins to have produced the excess, the signal does not survive a look-elsewhere correction. Other physically agnostic alternatives also fail to reject $Λ$CDM, while a physically motivated thawing-quintessence alternative rejects more strongly than any agnostic choice. The concentration of evidence in LRG2 specifically is difficult to reconcile with a smoothly evolving equation of state. The data therefore points to a fragile, single-bin, specification-dependent signal rather than robust evidence for dynamical dark energy. We recommend that future DESI, Euclid, Roman, and LSST data releases report an anytime-valid e-process value with its test specification stated alongside conventional $σ$ significances.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Bounds on $\Lambda$ at the Galactic Center

We constrain the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ using astrometric and spectroscopic observations of the S2, S1, and S14 stars orbiting Sgr A$^*$. The stellar motion is modelled by numerically integrating timelike geodesics in Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetime, including relativistic redshift and time-delay corrections. Orbital and spacetime parameters are inferred using a Bayesian MCMC analysis. The resulting posterior distributions place upper bounds on the magnitude of $\Lambda$ at the Galactic Center (GC). Combining the independent constraints from the S2, S1, and S14 orbits yields upper bounds of $\Lambda \lesssim 6.9\times10^{-48} \mathrm{m}^{-2}$ at 68\% credibility and $\Lambda \lesssim 1.0\times10^{-38} \mathrm{m}^{-2}$ at 95\% credibility.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2026

Mass-Varying Neutrinos from an Inverse Symmetron

Neutrinos enter cosmology in different ways and are constrained by distinct observational probes across different epochs: as a relativistic species at high redshift, as a massive but clustering-suppressing component at low redshift, and as a particle physics observable in laboratory experiments. Low (verging on negative) bounds on neutrino mass from galaxy surveys motivate exploration of models where neutrinos may couple to dark energy, causing their mass to vary over cosmic evolution. If the coupling involves an inverse phase transition (symmetry broken, rather than restored, as neutrinos become nonrelativistic) this can tame instabilities in neutrino growth, appear as a lower neutrino mass in galaxy surveys, and add extra suppression to the matter power spectrum. We find that the late-time decoupling shuts down the fifth force and inhibits the excessive growth of neutrino perturbations, thereby eliminating linear-regime instabilities. The model may potentially address the Hubble tension via an early dark energy component localized around the time of recombination.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Gaussian Process Reconstruction of Cosmological Parameters with Gravitational Wave Sirens using Machine Learning

Future gravitational wave (GW) standard siren catalogues will probe the late-time expansion history of the Universe across redshift ranges largely inaccessible to traditional electromagnetic observations. To determine how effectively this background distance information can distinguish between viable cosmological models, we introduce a model-independent reconstruction framework utilizing Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). Analyzing mock LISA and Einstein Telescope (ET) catalogues across six fiducial cosmological backgrounds-$Λ$CDM, CPL, CPL+$Λ$, interacting dark matter, interacting dark energy and axion inspired early dark energy. We reconstruct the comoving distance and its derivatives. Crucially, we propagated the full GP covariance, including derivative cross-covariances, to robustly evaluate the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ and other diagnostics such as $q(z)$, $\mathcal{O}_{m}(z)$ $w_{\rm total}(z)$ and $κ(z)$. While our analysis demonstrates that GW bright standard sirens faithfully recover fiducial expansion histories, applying pointwise marginal Hellinger distance reveals that background measurements alone do not provide decisive statistical separation among models. Instead, derivative sensitive diagnostics pinpoint specific redshift windows (e.g., $z\simeq1.6-1.8$ for ET and $z\simeq2.6-2.9$ for LISA) where future catalogues will maximize their discriminatory power. As machine learning methodologies become increasingly integral to astrophysics and cosmology, this Bayesian GPR pipeline offers a principled, nonparametric approach to precisely identifying where the most valuable cosmological information lies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Separate Universe Super-Resolution Emulator

We present a machine-learning model for generating super-resolution $N$-body simulations with non-vanishing spatial curvature, conditioned on a given low-resolution field, $Ω_k$, $Ω_\mathrm{m}$, $σ_8$, $h$, and redshift. By upscaling the resolution of $N$-body simulations, such models can drastically reduce the computational cost of producing high-resolution simulations suitable for modelling current and future surveys of large-scale structure. Our model is trained as a generative adversarial network, allowing injected noise to be interpreted as stochastic structure and enabling the generation of an ensemble of plausible high-resolution realisations. We evaluate the model performance by comparing key cosmological summary statistics in the generated simulations to their high-resolution counterparts. We find that the model accurately reproduces large-scale statistics, robustly recovering most of the power that was missing from the low-resolution input, but exhibits a residual suppression of power on small scales of up to $\sim 10\%$ at $k \sim 1\,h\,\mathrm{Mpc}^{-1}$. The abundance of halos around $10^{14}\,M_\odot$ is affected at a similar level, and we find that the profiles of these halos have a lower central density. Although the overall performance is decent, we anticipate that the fidelity of the generative model can be further increased with more and better training data, as well as through improvements in the model architecture and training process. To show a production-scale use case, we apply our model to upscale the resolution of a light cone from a large-volume $N$-body simulation with spatial curvature, producing a first-of-its-kind catalogue that simultaneously captures geometric effects at large scales and accurate nonlinear structure at small scales.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

Luminosity-Temperature Relation as a Probe for Modified Gravity

We investigate the luminosity-temperature ($L$-$T$) relation of galaxy clusters as a probe for testing modified gravity (MG) theories, focusing on $f(R)$ gravity and symmetron models. Using an improved semi-analytic framework that incorporates angular momentum acquisition, dynamical friction, and shock heating within the modified punctuated equilibrium model, we compare predictions against hydrodynamical simulations and observational data. While massive clusters remain largely screened and follow standard $Λ$CDM predictions, low-mass systems ($kT \lesssim 1-2$ keV) exhibit systematic deviations characterized by steeper $L$-$T$ slopes in MG scenarios. Crucially, we demonstrate that these signatures cannot be mimicked by conventional astrophysical processes such as feedback or angular momentum effects, which primarily affect normalization rather than curvature. Our results establish the $L$-$T$ relation as a robust diagnostic tool for distinguishing general relativity from screened MG theories, with the strongest discriminatory power emerging at group scales accessible to current and future X-ray surveys. Moreover, a normalized reduced $χ^2$ analysis of the $L$-$T$ relation shows that MG models provide significantly better agreement with observational data than $Λ$CDM, with several realizations achieving excellent fits while the $Λ$CDM model consistently performs worst.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

A modern halo streaming model for redshift space distortions

Accurate modelling of redshift-space distortions (RSD) in galaxy clustering is essential for extracting cosmological information from current and forthcoming large-scale structure surveys. While perturbation theory is reliable on large scales, much of the constraining power lies at intermediate and small separations, where nonlinear dynamics within and between dark matter haloes dominate. We present a halo streaming model for nonlinear galaxy clustering in redshift space that is accurate and physically interpretable. Our framework combines the streaming model for RSD with a halo-model decomposition of the galaxy clustering into central/satellite and one-/two-halo contributions. We build dedicated emulators for the key physical ingredients, trained on a suite of $N$-body simulations: halo mass functions, real-space halo two-point correlation functions, and pairwise velocity moments. By emulating these modular building blocks rather than the final redshift-space observable, this approach preserves physical transparency, enables targeted optimisation for each ingredient, and remains flexible to changes in tracer populations and galaxy-halo connection models. The resulting halo streaming model reproduces the simulated nonlinear anisotropic clustering signal down to highly nonlinear scales, while achieving the computational efficiency required for cosmological parameter inference. This framework is designed to support full-shape RSD analyses for surveys such as DESI and \textit{Euclid}, facilitating precision measurements of structure growth and tests of gravity. All codes and trained emulators are publicly available in the \href{https://github.com/chzruan/freyja}{\texttt{freyja}} repository.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Is Dark Energy Changing? Probing the Universe's Expansion with present and future astronomical probes

This study explores the possibility of a time-varying dark energy (DE) equation of state (EoS) deviating from -1. We employ a comprehensive dataset of usual astronomical probes (Type Ia supernovae, baryon acoustic oscillations, Big Bang nucleosynthesis, Hubble data, and Planck 2018 CMB) alongside future mock gravitational wave (GW) distance measurements from the Einstein Telescope. We utilize the Pad'e approximation, a versatile framework encompassing well-known DE models like constant EoS, Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parametrization and other time-evolving DE parametrizations. Within Pad'e parametrization, we examine three specific forms (Pad'e-I, SPad'e-I, Pad'e-II) applied to both spatially flat and non-flat universes. Pad'e-II exhibits particularly interesting features in terms of the evidence of dynamical DE at many standard deviations. Our results can be summarized as follows. Flat Universe: When analyzing the combined dataset of standard probes (including CMB) with Pad'e-II in a flat universe, we find a strong preference (6.4σ) for a dynamical (time-varying) DE EoS. This preference remains significant (4.7σ) even when incorporating future GW data. Non-Flat Universe: In a non-flat universe, the combined standard datasets (without or with CMB) also indicate dynamical DE EoS at a high confidence level (6.2σ and 6.4σ, respectively). The addition of GW data slightly reduces the evidence (3.8σ and 5.1σ, respectively), but the preference persists. These results collectively suggest a robust case for dynamical DE in the dark sector. While a non-flat universe is not strongly favored, Pad'e-II hints at a possible closed universe when CMB data is included (with or without GW data).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Gravitational waves from dark domain walls

For most of cosmic history, the evolution of our Universe has been governed by the physics of a 'dark sector', consisting of dark matter and dark energy, whose properties are only understood in a schematic way. The influence of these constituents is mediated exclusively by the force of gravity, meaning that insight into their nature must be gleaned from gravitational phenomena. The advent of gravitational-wave astronomy has revolutionised the field of black hole astrophysics, and opens a new window of discovery for cosmological sources. Relevant examples include topological defects, such as domain walls or cosmic strings, which are remnants of a phase transition. Here we present the first simulations of cosmic structure formation in which the dynamics of the dark sector introduces domain walls as a source of stochastic gravitational waves in the late Universe. We study in detail how the spectrum of gravitational waves is affected by the properties of the model, and extrapolate the results to scales relevant to the recent evidence for a stochastic gravitational wave background. Our relativistic implementation of the field dynamics paves the way for optimal use of the next generation of gravitational experiments to unravel the dark sector.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Complementary signatures of $α-$attractor inflation in CMB and cosmic string Gravitational Waves

When cosmic strings are formed during inflation, they regrow to reach a scaling regime, leaving distinct imprints on the stochastic gravitational wave background (SGWB). Such signatures, associated with specific primordial features, can be detected by upcoming gravitational wave observatories, such as the LISA and Einstein Telescope (ET). Our analysis explores scenarios in which cosmic strings form either before or during inflation. We examine how the number of e-folds experienced by cosmic strings during inflation correlates with the predictions of inflationary models observable in cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements. This correlation provides a testable link between inflationary physics and the associated gravitational wave signals in a complementary manner. Focusing on $α$-attractor models of inflation, with the Polynomial $α$-attractor serving as an illustrative example, we find constraints, for instance, on the spectral index $n_s$ to $0.962 \lesssim n_s \lesssim 0.972$ for polynomial exponent $n=1$, $0.956 \lesssim n_s \lesssim 0.968$ for $n=2$, $0.954 \lesssim n_s \lesssim 0.965$ for $n=3$, and $0.963 \lesssim n_s \lesssim 0.964$ for $n=4$, which along with the GW signals from LISA, are capable of detecting local cosmic strings that have experienced $\sim 34 - 47$ e-folds of inflation consistent with current Planck data and are also testable in upcoming CMB experiments such as LiteBIRD and CMB-S4.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Hubble Constant and Mass Determination of Centaurus A & M83 from TRGB Distances

An independent determination of the Hubble constant is crucial given the persistent tension between early- and late-Universe measurements. In this study, we analyze the dynamics of the Centaurus~A (CenA) and M83 galaxies, along with their associated dwarf companions identified via Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) distance measurements, to constrain both the group mass and the local value of the Hubble constant ($H_0$). By examining the motions of these galaxies relative to the system's barycenter, we apply both the minor and major infall models, which provide bounds on the true radial velocity dispersion. From the overlap of these approaches, we obtain a virial mass estimate of $(7.3 \pm 2.0) \times 10^{12}\,M_{\odot}$ and a Hubble flow-based mass of $(2.6 \pm 1.4) \times 10^{12}\,M_{\odot}$. Modeling the cold Hubble flow around the group center of mass yields a corresponding Hubble constant of $(64.0 \pm 4.6)\,\mathrm{km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}}$. These results offer an independent, dynamically motivated constraint on the local value of $H_0$, explicitly accounting for the impact of peculiar velocities in the nearby Universe. We also discuss the $\sim 2σ$ tension between the virial and Hubble flow-based mass estimates, which likely arises from the proximity of M83 to the velocity surface, breaking the assumptions of the Hubble flow model. While the Hubble flow fit emphasizes galaxies that follow smooth expansion on the lower branch of the velocity-distance relation, the virial mass estimate is in good agreement with the group mass derived from the $K$-band luminosity of its brightest members and from projected mass methods.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Non-linear structure formation with elastic interactions in the dark sector

Cosmological models where dark matter interacts with dark energy via a pure momentum transfer and with no energy exchange (i.e. elastic) provide compelling scenarios for addressing the apparent lack of structures at low redshift. In particular, it has been shown that measurements of $S_8$ may show a statistically significant preference for the presence of elastic interactions. In this work we implement a specific realisation of these scenarios into an $N$-body code to explore the non-linear regime. We include two populations of particles to describe the interacting dark matter and the non-interacting baryons respectively. On linear scales we recover the suppression of structures obtained from Boltzmann codes, while non-linear scales exhibit an enhancement of the matter power. We find that fewer massive halos are formed at low redshift as a consequence of the elastic interaction and that dark matter halos are more compact than in the standard model. Furthermore, the ratio of dark matter and baryons density profiles is not constant. Finally, we corroborate that baryons efficiently cluster around dark matter halos so they provide good tracers of the dark matter velocity field despite the presence of the interaction. This shows that the interaction is not sufficiently strong as to disrupt virialised structures.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Cosmology-informed Neural Networks to infer dark energy equation-of-state

We present a framework that combines physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) with Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) inference to constrain dynamical dark energy models using the Pantheon+ Type Ia supernova compilation. First, we train a physics-informed neural network to learn the solution of the Friedmann equation and accurately reproduce the matter density term x_m(z) = Omega_m,0 (1+z)^3 across a range of Omega_m,0. For each of five two-parameter equation-of-state (EoS) forms: Chevallier-Polarski-Linder (CPL), Barboza-Alcaniz (BA), Jassal-Bagla-Padmanabhan (JBP), Linear-z, and Logarithmic-z, we derive the analytic dark energy factor x_de(z), embed the trained surrogate within a GPU-accelerated likelihood pipeline, and sample the posterior of (h0, Omega_m,0, w0, wa, M0) using the emcee ensemble sampler with the full Pantheon+ covariance. All parameterizations remain consistent with a cosmological constant (w0 = -1, wa = 0) at the 95% credible level, with the tightest bounds from the CPL form. While the surrogate does not reduce computation time for a single run in simple models, it becomes advantageous for repeated analyses of the same EoS or for models with expensive likelihood evaluations, and can be shared as a reusable tool with different datasets within the training range of SNe redshifts. This flexibility makes the approach a scalable tool for future cosmological inference, especially in regimes where conventional ODE-based methods are computationally prohibitive.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Constraints on Bianchi-I type universe with SH0ES anchored Pantheon+ SNIa data

We study the Bianchi-I cosmological model motivated by signals of statistical isotropy violation seen in cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations and others. To that end, we consider various kinds of anisotropic matter that source anisotropy in our model, specifically Cosmic strings, Magnetic fields, Domain walls and Lorentz violation generated magnetic fields. These anisotropic matter sources, taking one at a time, are studied for their co-evolution with standard model (isotropic) sources viz., dust-like (dark/normal) matter, and dark energy modelled as cosmological constant. We constrain the Hubble parameter, density fractions of anisotropic matter, cold dark matter (CDM), and dark energy ($Λ$) in a Bianchi-I universe with planar symmetry i.e., which has a global ellipsoidal geometry, and try to find signatures of a cosmic preferred axis if any. The latest compilation of Type Ia Supernova (SNIa) data from Pantheon+SH0ES collaboration is used in our analysis to obtain constraints on cosmological parameters and any preferred axis for our universe. In our analysis, we found mild evidence for a cosmic preferred axis. It is interesting to note that this preferred axis lies broadly in the vicinity of other prominent cosmic anisotropy axes reported in the literature from diverse data sets. Also we find some evidence for non-zero (negative) cosmic shear and eccentricity that characterize different expansion rates in different directions and deviation from an isotropic scale factor respectively. The energy density fractions of two of the sources considered are found to be non-zero at a $2σ$ confidence level. To be more conclusive, we require more SNIa host galaxy data for tighter constraints on distance and absolute magnitude calibration which are expected to be available from the future JWST observations and others.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Cosmographic constraints on a Gödel-type rotating universe

We investigate the possibility of global cosmic rotation using a Gödel-type rotating cosmological model, constrained through a cosmographic analysis of Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) from the Pantheon+ dataset. Employing a Taylor-expanded apparent magnitude--redshift relation derived via the Kristian-Sachs formalism, we analyze low-redshift SNIa data across five redshift bins (up to $Z \leq 0.5$). Our results reveal a mild but consistent preference for cosmic rotation, with the dimensionless rotation parameter $Ω_0$ peaking at $0.29^{+0.21}_{-0.15}$ for $Z \leq 0.2$, and a broadly aligned anisotropy axis centered around equatorial coordinates $(243^\circ, -49^\circ)$. The inferred Hubble constant $h_0 \approx 0.73$ remains stable across all bins, while the deceleration parameter $q_0$ trends from near-zero to mildly negative values with increasing redshift. Model comparison using the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) indicates a statistically significant preference for the rotating model over the standard $Λ$CDM cosmology at intermediate redshifts. These findings suggest that cosmic rotation, if present, may influence the late-time expansion history of the universe and warrants further investigation beyond the cosmographic regime.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2025

Anisotropic universe with anisotropic dark energy

We investigate the anisotropic parameterization of the dark energy equation of state within the framework of an axisymmetric (planar) Bianchi-I universe. Using the latest Pantheon+ Type Ia Supernova dataset, augmented by SH0ES Cepheid distance calibrators, we constrain both the equation of state for anisotropic dark energy and other standard cosmological parameters. Additionally, we examine the presence of an underlying anisotropic axis. Our analysis yields a mean anisotropic dark energy equation of state of $\bar{w} = -0.86^{+0.15}_{-0.11}$ and a difference in the equation of states in and perpendicular to the plane of the axisymmetric Bianchi-I spacetime of $δ_w = -0.129^{+0.090}_{-0.064}$. We also identify an axis of anisotropy at approximately $(272^{\circ}, 21^{\circ})$ in galactic coordinates. Through a comparative study of different cosmological models, we find that the data favor a Bianchi-I universe with anisotropic dark energy, where the equation of state deviates from ``-1'' along the axis of anisotropy (the $w_b$CDM model), over both other anisotropic models considered and the standard flat $Λ$CDM or $w$CDM models.

astro-ph.CO↗