What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to improve the understanding of late-time expansion in cosmology through a framework that incorporates physics constraints.

January 14, 2026Open Access

Constraint-Driven Cosmology (CDC): Thermodynamic and Consistency Gates on Late-Time Expansion (Final)

Key Points

The study aims to improve the understanding of late-time expansion in cosmology through a framework that incorporates physics constraints.
Developed a gate-based inference framework for late-time expansion histories.
Applied constraints from thermodynamic principles and consistency tests.
Utilized synthetic and minimal real data for validation through cosmic chronometer reconstruction.
Validated framework shows improvements in reconstruction stability.
Demonstrated success in localizing tension between observational sectors.
Introduced operational diagnostics to assess failed constraints in cosmological models.

Abstract

CDC (Constraint-Driven Cosmology) is a gate-based inference framework that constrains admissible late-time expansion histories using auditable physics requirements rather than flexible equation-of-state parameterizations. Gates include: units/symbol hygiene, conservation closure, baseline limit recovery, horizon-thermodynamic null tests (apparent-horizon entropy constraints), and distance–growth consistency in GR. CDC turns these constraints into operational diagnostics (PASS/FAIL + failure localization) and provides a reproducibility checklist and pipeline pseudocode.This release includes synthetic-data validation and a minimal real-data demonstration section (cosmic chronometer H(z)H(z)H(z) reconstruction with a NEC/horizon diagnostic), designed to illustrate how the gate logic stabilizes reconstructions and localizes tension between observational sectors.

Constraint-Driven Cosmology (CDC): Thermodynamic and Consistency Gates on Late-Time Expansion (Final)

Key Points

Abstract

Cite This Study