Analysing Hubble Tension and Gravitational Waves for $f(Q,T)$ Gravity Theories

Abstract: In this work, we examine viable models of $f(Q,T)$ gravity theories against observational data with the aim to constrain the parameter space of these models. We have analysed five different models of $f(Q,T)$ gravity and tested them against Type Ia supernovae, Cosmic Chronometer data, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations data and Pantheon data. We put stringent constraints on the $f(Q,T)$ gravity models, $f(Q,T) = Q^{n} +\beta T$ $(n=1,2,3)$, $f(Q,T)=-\alpha Q-\beta T^{2}$ and $f(Q,T)=Q^{-2}T^{2}$ along with other cosmological parameters such as deceleration parameter, equation of state parameter and demonstrate their alignment with the $\Lambda CDM$ model and the observational data. We show that these models have the capability to alleviate the Hubble tension, by predicting the present value of the Hubble parameter close to $74$km/s/Mpc. $f(Q,T)$ gravity theory introduces alterations in the background evolution and imposes a friction term in the propagation of gravitational waves, this phenomenon has also been examined. We have shown their agreement with the Gravitational Wave (GW) luminosity distance with the Electromagnetic (EM) counter part data from Advanced LIGO and Advanced VIRGO across different observing runs capturing coalescence of Binary Neutron Stars (BNS), mergers of Binary Black Holes (BBHs), and Neutron Star-Black Hole (NSBH) binaries with EM counterparts.