File:Look-back time by redshift.png

Any autoconfirmed user can overwrite this file from the same source. Please ensure that overwrites comply with the guideline. Category:Files allowed to be overwritten by everyone

Summary

Description
English: The cosmological look-back time of astronomical observations in billions of years ago by their redshift value z, demarcated by the furthest known object as of 2025, galaxy MoM-z14. Please see also S.V. Pilipenko (2013-21) "Paper-and-pencil cosmological calculator" arxiv:1303.5961, for the Fortran-90 code upon which the Python code below for this chart was based,
and this discussion of which Hubble constant H₀ is appropriate for different kinds of work.
Date
Source Own work
Author TestUser345 from earlier work by Sandizer
Permission
(Reusing this file)
CC0 public domain

Licensing

I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license:
Creative Commons CC-Zero This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Category:CC-Zero#Look-back%20time%20by%20redshift.pngCategory:Self-published work

Python source code

# Thanks to ChatGPT and the Fortran-90 code from arxiv:1303.5961,
#     https://code.google.com/archive/p/cosmonom/downloads
# here's how to get cosmological look-back time from redshift in Python:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from numpy import arcsinh

Om = 0.3153  # from Planck Collaboration 2018: https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.06209
furthest_z = 14.44  # 2025 record: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.11263

def make_curve(H0, color_main, color_dark, label):
    # Radiation density parameter from Planck Collaboration 2018 using CMB
    # temperature from Fixsen 2009, N_eff = 3.046, and Omega_r * h^2 ≈ 4.15e-5:
    OL = 1.0 - Om - 0.415 / (H0**2)

    def age_at_z(z):
        return (2/3) * arcsinh(((OL / (Om * (1 + z)**3))**0.5)) / (H0 * OL**0.5) * 977.8
    age0 = age_at_z(0)
    def zt(z): return age0 - age_at_z(z)

    rs = [z * 20 / 299 for z in range(300)]
    lb = [zt(z) for z in rs]
    # Split into pre- and post-MoM-z14 ranges
    x1, y1 = zip(*[(x, y) for x, y in zip(rs, lb) if x <= furthest_z])
    x2, y2 = zip(*[(x, y) for x, y in zip(rs, lb) if x > furthest_z])
    plt.plot(x1, y1, color=color_main, label=f"{label}: $H_0$={H0} km/s/Mpc")
    plt.plot(x2, y2, color=color_dark)

plt.figure(figsize=(9,6))
ax = plt.gca()
ax.spines['top'].set_visible(False)
ax.spines['right'].set_visible(False)

make_curve(67.36, 'cyan', 'teal', 'Planck Collaboration')
make_curve(69.32, 'red', 'darkred', 'Consensus compromise')
make_curve(70, 'orange', 'darkorange', 'Single digit precision')
make_curve(73.2, 'blue', 'midnightblue', 'SH0ES Team')

plt.title('Look-back Time by Redshift for Different Hubble Constants')
plt.xlabel('Redshift z: (observed λ - expected λ) / expected λ')
plt.ylabel('Look-back Time in billion years (Gyr)')
legend = plt.legend(title="Assuming $Ω_m$=0.3153, as per arXiv:1807.06209")
plt.grid(True, color='lightgray')

plt.ylim(0, 13.9)
plt.xlim(0, 20)
plt.xticks(range(21))
plt.yticks(range(14))

plt.text(0.5, 13.78, "— Big Bang: 13.78 Gyr (as per Planck Collaboration) —", va='center')

eqs = (r"$\mathrm{ageAtRedshift}(z)=\int_{z}^{\infty}\frac{dz'}{(1+z')\sqrt{\Omega_{\Lambda}+\Omega_{m}(1+z')^{3}}}\,\frac{977.8}{H_{0}}$" "\n"
    r"$=\frac{2\,\sinh^{-1}\!\left(\dfrac{\sqrt{\Omega_{\Lambda}/\Omega_{m}}}{(1+z)^{3/2}}\right)\,977.8}{3H_{0}\sqrt{\Omega_{\Lambda}}}$ Gyr, as per arXiv:gr-qc/0508073." "\n\n"
    r"$\mathrm{lookBackTime}(z)=\mathrm{ageAtRedshift}(0)-\mathrm{ageAtRedshift}(z)$." "\n\n"
    r"$\Omega_\Lambda = 1.0 - \Omega_m - \frac{0.415}{H_0^2}$, per Planck 2018 and Fixsen 2009")
fig = plt.gcf()
fig.text(0.5, 0.5, eqs, ha='center', va='center', fontsize=10,
    bbox=dict(boxstyle='round,pad=0.4', facecolor='white', alpha=0.9, linewidth=0))

plt.text(furthest_z, 10.5, 'Furthest observation as of 2025:\n'
    'the galaxy MoM-z14, at z=14.44,\nor about 13.5 billion years ago',
    ha='center')

outpath_multi = 'lookback-time-by-redshift-H0-comparison.png'
plt.savefig(outpath_multi, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.show()  # https://i.ibb.co/GfLjrWN3/lookback-time-by-redshift-H0-comparison-2.png
Category:Redshift Category:Cosmology diagrams Category:Big Bang Category:Files using the English language Category:AI-generated charts with matplotlib code
Category:AI-generated charts with matplotlib code Category:Big Bang Category:CC-Zero Category:Cosmology diagrams Category:Files allowed to be overwritten by everyone Category:Files using the English language Category:Redshift Category:Self-published work