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    SPT-3G D1: Axion early dark energy with CMB experiments and DESI observations

    A. R. Khalife1, L. Balkenhol1, E. Camphuis1, A. J. Anderson2,3,4, B. Ansarinejad5, M. Archipley4,3, P. S. Barry6, K. Benabed1, A. N. Bender7,3,4 et al. (SPT-3G Collaboration)

    A. N. Bender7,3,4, B. A. Benson2,3,4, F. Bianchini8,9,10, L. E. Bleem7,3,4, F. R. Bouchet1, L. Bryant11, M. G. Campitiello7, J. E. Carlstrom3,11,12,7,4, C. L. Chang7,3,4, P. Chaubal5, P. M. Chichura12,3, A. Chokshi4, T.-L. Chou4,3,13, A. Coerver14, T. M. Crawford4,3, C. Daley15,16, T. de Haan17, K. R. Dibert4,3, M. A. Dobbs18,19, M. Doohan5, A. Doussot1, D. Dutcher20, W. Everett21, C. Feng22, K. R. Ferguson23,24, K. Fichman12,3, A. Foster20, S. Galli1, A. E. Gambrel3, R. W. Gardner11, F. Ge8,9,25, N. Goeckner-Wald9,8, R. Gualtieri7,26, F. Guidi1, S. Guns14, N. W. Halverson27,28, E. Hivon1, W. L. Holzapfel14, J. C. Hood3, A. Hryciuk12,3, N. Huang14, F. Kéruzoré7, L. Knox25, M. Korman29, K. Kornoelje4,3,7, C.-L. Kuo8,9,10, K. Levy5, A. E. Lowitz3, C. Lu22, G. P. Lynch25, A. Maniyar8,9,10, E. S. Martsen4,3, F. Menanteau16,30, M. Millea14, J. Montgomery18, Y. Nakato9, T. Natoli3, G. I. Noble31,32, Y. Omori4,3, A. Ouellette22, Z. Pan7,3,12, P. Paschos11, K. A. Phadke16,30,33, A. W. Pollak4, K. Prabhu25, W. Quan7,12,3, M. Rahimi5, A. Rahlin4,3, C. L. Reichardt5, M. Rouble18, J. E. Ruhl29, E. Schiappucci5, A. Simpson4,3, J. A. Sobrin2,3, A. A. Stark34, J. Stephen11, C. Tandoi16, B. Thorne25, C. Trendafilova30, C. Umilta22, J. D. Vieira16,22,30, A. Vitrier1, Y. Wan16,30, N. Whitehorn24, W. L. K. Wu8,10, M. R. Young2,3, and J. A. Zebrowski3,4,2 (SPT-3G Collaboration)

    • 1Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
    • 2Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, MS209, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, Illinois, 60510, USA
    • 3Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
    • 4Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
    • 5School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
    • 6School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, United Kingdom
    • 7High-Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Lemont, Illinois, 60439, USA
    • 8Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, 452 Lomita Mall, Stanford, California, 94305, USA
    • 9Department of Physics, Stanford University, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, California, 94305, USA
    • 10SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA
    • 11Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
    • 12Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
    • 13National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 106319, Taiwan
    • 14Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA
    • 15Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
    • 16Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA
    • 17High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan
    • 18Department of Physics and McGill Space Institute, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada
    • 19Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, CIFAR Program in Gravity and the Extreme Universe, Toronto, Ontario, M5G 1Z8, Canada
    • 20Joseph Henry Laboratories of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
    • 21Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA
    • 22Department of Physics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA
    • 23Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, California, 90095, USA
    • 24Department of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA
    • 25Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, USA
    • 26Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, 633 Clark St, Evanston, Illinois, 60208, USA
    • 27CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA
    • 28Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309, USA
    • 29Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, 44106, USA
    • 30Center for AstroPhysical Surveys, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA
    • 31Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada
    • 32David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H4, Canada
    • 33NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI), 172 East Chestnut Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611, USA
    • 34Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 103546 – Published 29 May, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/8jjr-7hpb

    Abstract

    We present the most up-to-date constraints on axion early dark energy (AEDE) from cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. In particular, we assess the impact of data from ground-based CMB experiments, the South Pole Telescope (SPT) and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT)—both with and without Planck—on constraints on AEDE. We also highlight the impact that BAO information from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has on these constraints. From CMB data alone, we do not find statistically significant evidence for the presence of AEDE, and we find only moderate reduction in the Hubble tension. From the latest SPT data alone, we find the maximal fractional contribution of AEDE to the cosmic energy budget is fEDE<0.12 at 95% confidence level (CL), and the Hubble tension between the SPT and Supernovae, H0, for the Equation of State of Dark Energy (SH0ES) results is reduced to the 2.3σ level. When combining the latest SPT, ACT, and Planck datasets, we find fEDE<0.070 at 95% CL and the Hubble tension at the 3.6σ level. In contrast, adding DESI data to the CMB datasets results in mild preference for AEDE and, in some cases, non-negligible reduction in the Hubble tension. From SPT+DESI, we find fEDE=0.081−0.052+0.037 at 68% CL, and the Hubble tension reduces to 1.5σ. From the combination of DESI with all three CMB experiments, we get fEDE=0.055−0.047+0.024 at 68% CL and a weak preference for AEDE over ΛCDM. This data combination, in turn, reduces the Hubble tension to 2.6σ. We highlight that this shift in parameters when adding the DESI dataset is a manifestation of the discrepancy currently present between DESI and CMB experiments in the concordance model ΛCDM.

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    Phys. Rev. D 113, 103546– Published 29 May, 2026
    • Received 27 August 2025
    • Accepted 10 April 2026
    Article part of CHORUS
    Accepted manuscript will be available starting 29 May, 2027.
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