The mass effect -- Variations of masses and their impact on cosmology

We summarize and explain the current status of variations of fundamental masses in cosmology, with a particular focus on variations of the electron mass. We show that electron mass variations not only allow for significant easing of the Hubble tension but are also preferred at a decent level of significance using the latest DESI data (between 2 and 3. 6 depending on the model and the data). This extreme success of the model is neither tightly constrained from light element abundances generated during big bang nucleosynthesis nor from post-recombination observations using quasars and atomic clocks, though future data is expected to give strong evidence in favor of or against this model. Models of baryon mass variations, on the other hand, are shown to generally not be cosmologically interesting.