The Disunity of Robustness: Hubble Tension
PDF

Keywords

Robustness
Hubble Tension

How to Cite

Forgione, M. (2025). The Disunity of Robustness: Hubble Tension. The Reasoner, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.54103/1757-0522/30052

Abstract

The paper examines how conceptual disunity in robustness analysis (RA) can generate contradictory interpretations of the Hubble tension, the discrepancy between independent measurements of the universe’s expansion rate. I will consider different philosophical accounts of robustness and how they apply to cosmological practice. I then demonstrate how each framework validates conflicting conclusions. More specifically, I show how Levins’ model comparison, Woodward’s measurement invariance, and Weisberg’s representational accounts each justify different interpretations of whether systematic errors or new physics explain the tension.

https://doi.org/10.54103/1757-0522/30052
PDF

References

Di Valentino, Said, et al. (2025: Addressing observational tensions in cosmology with systematics and fundamental physics, Physics of the Dark Universe, 1-416).

Liddle (2015: An introduction to modern cosmology, John Wiley & Sons).

Agahim, Akrami, et al. (2020: Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 641, A6).

Riess, Yuan, et al. (2022: A comprehensive measurement of the local value of the Hubble constant with 1 km s−1Mpc−1 uncertainty from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SH0ES Team, The Astrophysical Journal, 934(1), L7).

Wong, Suyu, et al. (2019: H0LiCOW XIII. A 2.4% measurement of H0 from lensed quasars: 5.3σ tension between early and late-Universe probes, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 498(1), 1420-1439).

Pesce, Braatz, et al. (2020: The Megamaser Cosmology Project. VIII. A geometric distance to NGC 5765b, The Astrophysical Journal, 891(1), L1).

Cuceu, Farr et al. (2019: Baryon acoustic oscillation and the Hubble constant: past, present and future. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2019(10), 044).

Levins (1966: The strategy of model building in population biology, American Scientist, 54(4), 421-431).

Woodward (2006: Sensitive and robust scientific inference, Philosophy of Science, 13(2), 219-240).

Riess, Scolnic, et al., (2024: JWST Validates HST Distance Measurements: Selection of Supernova Subsample Explains Differences in JWST Estimates of Local H0. The Astrophysical Journal, 977(1), 120).

Weisberg and Reisman (2008: Robustness analysis, philosophy of science, 75(1), 106-131).

Orzack and Sober (1993: How to be a successful error theorist: the case of Levins' model of robustness, Philosophy of Science, 60(4), 531-550).

Wimsatt (1981: Robustness, reliability, and overdetermination, in: Characterizing the robustness of science: After the practice turn in philosophy of science (2012), 61-87, Springer).

Freedman, Madore, et al. (2019: The Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program. VIII. An independent determination of the Hubble constant based on the tip of the red giant branch, The Astrophysical Journal, 882(1), 34).

Gardner, Mather, et al. (2023: The James Webb Space Telescope Mission, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 135(1048), 068001).

Matarese, McCoy (2024: When "replicability" is more than just "reliability": The Hubble constant controversy, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 107, 1-10).

Riess, Anand, et al. (2024: JWST observations reject unrecognized crowding of cepheid photometry as an explanation for the hubble tension at 8σ confidence, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 962(1), L17).

Freedman, Madore, et al. (2024: Status report on the Chicago-Carnegie Hubble Program (CCHP): Three independent astrophysical determinations of the Hubble constant using the James Webb Space Telescope, The Astrophysical Journal, 985(2), 203).

Perivolaropoulos (2024: Hubble tension or distance ladder crisis?, Physical Review D, 110(12), 123518).

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Copyright (c) 2025 Marco Forgione

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.