Abstract
The Hubble tension and attempts to resolve it by modifying the physics of (or at) recombination motivate finding ways to determine H 0 and the sound horizon at the epoch of baryon decoupling r d in ways that rely neither on a recombination model nor on late-time Hubble data. In this work, we investigate what one can learn from the current and future BAO data when treating r d and H 0 as independent free parameters. It is well known that baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) give exquisite constraints on the product r d H 0. We show here that imposing a moderate prior on Ωm h 2 breaks the degeneracy between r d and H 0. Using the latest BAO data, including the recently released the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey Data Release 16, along with a Ωm h 2 prior based on the Planck best-fit Λ cold dark matter (ΛCDM) model, we find r d = 143.7 ± 2.7 Mpc and H 0 = 69.6 ± 1.8 km s−1 Mpc−1. BAO data prefers somewhat lower r d and higher H 0 than those inferred from Planck data in a ΛCDM model. We find similar values when combing BAO with the Pantheon supernovae, the Dark Energy Survey Year 1 galaxy weak lensing, Planck or SPTPol cosmic microwave background lensing, and the cosmic chronometer data. We perform a forecast for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and find that, when aided with a moderate prior on Ωm h 2, DESI will measure r d and H 0 without assuming a recombination model with an accuracy surpassing the current best estimates from Planck.