H₀ without the sound horizon (or supernovae): A 2% measurement in DESI DR1

Journal Article · Thu Apr 02 00:00:00 UTC 2026 · Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516/2026/04/004 · OSTI ID:3000852

Zaborowski, E. A.  ^[1]; Taylor, P.; Honscheid, K. ; Cuceu, A. ; de Mattia, A. ; Krolewski, A.; Rashkovetskyi, M. ; Ross, A.J. ; To, C.; Aguilar, J.; Ahlen, S. ; Anand, A. ; BenZvi, S. ; Bianchi, D. ; Brooks, D.; Castander, F.J. ; Claybaugh, T.; de la Macorra, A. ; Della Costa, J. ; Doel, P. ; Ferraro, S. ; Font-Ribera, A. ; Forero-Romero, J.E. ; Gaztañaga, E. ; Gutierrez, G.; Herrera-Alcantar, H.K. ; Howlett, C. ; Huterer, D. ; Ishak, M. ; Joyce, R. ; Kirkby, D. ; Kisner, T. ; Kremin, A. ; Lahav, O.; Lamman, C. ; Landriau, M. ; Le Guillou, L. ; Manera, M. ; Martini, P. ; Meisner, A. ; Miquel, R.; Moustakas, J. ; Nadathur, S. ; Niz, G. ; Palanque-Delabrouille, N. ; Percival, W.J. ; Prada, F. ; Pérez-Ràfols, I. ; Rossi, G.; Samushia, L. ; Sanchez, E. ; Schlegel, D.; Schubnell, M.; Seo, H. ; Silber, J. ; Sprayberry, D.; Tarlé, G. ; Weaver, B.A.; Zarrouk, P. ; Zhou, R. ; Zou, H.

---

1. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States); DESI Collaboration. et al.

The sound horizon scale rs is a key source of information for measurements of H₀ from early-time data, and is therefore a common target of new physics proposed to solve the Hubble tension. We present a sub-2% measurement of the Hubble constant that is independent of this scale, using data from the first data release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI DR1). Building on previous work, we remove dependency on the sound horizon size using a heuristic rescaling procedure at the power spectrum level. A key innovation is the inclusion of uncalibrated (agnostic to r_s) post-reconstruction BAO measurements from DESI DR1, as well as using the CMB acoustic scale θ* as a high-redshift anchor. Uncalibrated type-Ia supernovae are often included as an independent source of Ω_m information; here we demonstrate the robustness of our results by additionally considering two supernova-independent alternative datasets. We find somewhat higher values of H₀ relative to our previous work: 69.2^+1.3_-1.4, 70.3^+1.4_-1.2, and 69.6^+1.3_-1.8 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 respectively when including measurements from i) Planck/ACT CMB lensing × unWISE galaxies, ii) the DES Year 3 6×2pt analysis, and iii) Planck/ACT CMB lensing + the DES Year 5 supernova analysis. These remarkably consistent constraints achieve better than 2% precision; they are among the most stringent sound horizon-independent measurements from LSS to date, and provide a powerful avenue for probing the origin of the Hubble tension.

• Research Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Office of Workforce Development for Teachers & Scientists (WDTS)
• Grant/Contract Number: 89243024CSC000002; AC02-05CH11231; SC0014664
• OSTI ID: 3000852
• Report Number(s): FERMILAB-PUB--25-0786-PPD; oai:inspirehep.net:3072121; arXiv:2510.19149
• Journal Information: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, Journal Name: Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics Journal Issue: 04 Vol. 2026; ISSN 1475-7516
• Publisher: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English