Consistency tests between SDSS and DESI BAO measurements

Abstract

In this work, we investigate whether the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements from redshift surveys, like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), are consistent with each other. We do so by obtaining the Hubble and deceleration parameter, respectively $H(z)$ and $q(z)$, from both datasets using a non-parametric reconstruction, so that our results do not depend on any {\it a priori} assumptions about the underlying cosmological model. We find that the reconstructed $H(z)$ and $q(z)$ from SDSS are significantly inconsistent with those obtained from DESI, and that both are only marginally consistent with the $\Lambda$CDM model ($\sim 3\sigma$ confidence level). Interestingly, the combined SDSS and DESI dataset reconciles with the standard model. These results are mostly unchanged with respect to different assumptions on the sound horizon scale value, as well as different reconstruction kernels. We also verify the results for the null diagnostic $\mathcal{O}_{\rm m}(z)$, finding that SDSS favours a quintessence-like dark energy model, whereas a phantom-like dark energy is preferred by DESI data, and once again the combined dataset strongly agrees with $\Lambda$CDM. Therefore, our results call the attention for further examination of such inconsistency, as they can lead to biased and divergent results regarding the validity of the standard model, or the suggestion of new physics.