Hubble tension in k-essence: Evidence for robust tension alleviation

Abstract

The Hubble tension has come to stay as a major problem in modern cosmology as it continues to plague the standard cosmological model ($Λ$CDM). As one of the viable, self-consistent dark energy theories, k-essence involves nontrivial self-interactions that can modify the background expansion beyond recombination; thereby impacting the sound horizon to last scattering, and hence, the inferred value of the Hubble constant. We examine this tension in two physically motivated k-essence models, dilaton and tachyon, using datasets from Planck and late-Universe probes including Pantheon+SH0ES, cosmic chronometer (CC), Supernova Cosmology Project Union compilation (Union3), Dark Energy Survey Year~5 (DESY5), and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) measurements. While $Λ$CDM exhibits inconsistent tension inferences, both k-essence models exhibit a substantial tension alleviation that is robust against the inclusion of the independent late-Universe cosmological datasets, giving consistent tension reduction irrespective of whether the observations are supernovae (Pantheon+SH0ES, Union3, DESY5) alone or in combination with cosmic chronometers (CC) and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements (DESI). The combined late-Universe dataset leads to only $0.14σ$ and $0.69σ$ offsets from the Planck prediction in the dilaton and tachyon models, respectively, compared to $5.89σ$ tension in $Λ$CDM. Both models demonstrate that the inferred tension alleviation is a stable, intrinsic consequence of the underlying k-essence dynamics rather than of model fine tuning: model parameters remain unchanged across datasets. The results establish that the apparent Hubble tension is not an unavoidable feature of late-Universe cosmology but depends critically on the description of dark energy.