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Hot new early dark energy: Dark radiation matter decoupling

Mathias Garny1,*, Florian Niedermann2,†, Henrique Rubira3,4,5,‡, and Martin S. Sloth6,§

  • *Contact author: mathias.garny@tum.de
  • †Contact author: florian.niedermann@su.se
  • ‡Contact author: henrique.rubira@lmu.de
  • §Contact author: sloth@sdu.dk

Phys. Rev. D 114, 043532 – Published 17 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/787w-dpbz

Abstract

We present a microscopic model of the dark sector that resolves the Hubble tension within standard current datasets (Planck 2018, Pantheon+ and DESI DR2 BAO) based on well-known fundamental principles, gauge symmetry and spontaneous symmetry breaking. It builds on the hot new early dark energy (Hot NEDE) setup, featuring a dark SU(N) gauge symmetry broken to SU(N−1) in a supercooled phase transition that creates a thermal bath of self-interacting dark radiation in the epoch between big bang nucleosynthesis and recombination. Adding a fermion multiplet charged under the gauge symmetry provides a naturally stable component of dark matter that interacts with dark radiation. Spontaneous symmetry breaking predicts a decoupling of this interaction once the dark sector cools down, that we refer to as dark radiation matter decoupling (DRMD). We also provide a simplified DRMD model that captures the essential features of the full theory while retaining additional falsifiable predictions. Using the datasets stated above, we find agreement with the SH0ES determination of H0 at the 1.4σ level, compared to a 5.7σ tension in ΛCDM, thereby providing a resolution of the Hubble tension.

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