Observational constraints on cosmology from modified Friedmann equation

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Recent measurements of type Ia supernovae as well as other concordant observations suggest that the expansion of our universe is accelerating. A dark energy component has usually been invoked as the most feasible mechanism for the acceleration. However, the effects arising from possible extra dimensions can mimic well the role of a dark energy through a modified Friedmann equation. In this work, we investigate some observational constraints on a scenario in which this modification is given by H² = 8πG 3 (ρ+Cρⁿ). We mainly focus our attention on the constraints from recent measurements of the dimensionless coordinate distances to type Ia supernovae and Fanaroff-Riley type IIb radio galaxies compiled by Daly and Djorgovski (2003) and the X-ray gas mass fractions in clusters of galaxies published by Allen et al. (2002,2003). We obtain the confidence region on the power index n of the modificative term and the density parameter Ωₘ of the universe from a combined analysis of these databases. It is found that n=0.06⁺⁰.²²₋₀.₁₈ and Ωₘ=0.30⁺⁰.⁰²₋₀.₀₂, at the 95.4% confidence level, which is consistent within the errors with the standard ΛCDM model. These parameter ranges give a universe whose expansion swithes from deceleration to acceleration at a redshift between 0.52 to 0.73.