Addressing the Hubble Tension: Insights from Reversible and Irreversible Thermodynamic Processes

Abstract: We investigate the role of reversible and irreversible thermodynamic processes in a cosmological context, focusing on their impact on the early and late-time expansion history of the universe. In our framework, gravitationally induced adiabatic matter creation/annihilation are treated as irreversible processes, while energy exchange between the cosmic bulk and the horizon is modeled as reversible. We propose two thermodynamic interacting scenarios with matter creation/annihilation in which energy flows from matter and radiation components to an effective entropic dark energy sector. In both scenarios, effective entropic dark energy initially exhibits properties akin to those of radiation and matter prior to recombination. Subsequently, it transitions into a quintessence state, ultimately converging towards the cosmological constant in the current epoch. Our models predict Hubble constant values of $H_0 = 71.73 \pm 0.79 \text{km} \, \text{s}^{-1} \, \text{Mpc}^{-1}$ and $H_0 = 71.06 \pm 0.79 \text{km} \, \text{s}^{-1} \, \text{Mpc}^{-1}$, which exhibit agreement with the recent 2024 SH0ES measurement of $H_0 = 73.17 \pm 0.86 \text{km} \, \text{s}^{-1} \, \text{Mpc}^{-1}$ at levels of $1.2\sigma$ and $1.8\sigma$. When compared to the 2022 SH0ES baseline measurement of $H_0 = 73.04 \pm 1.04 \text{km} \, \text{s}^{-1} \, \text{Mpc}^{-1}$, both models demonstrate concordance at $1\sigma$ and $1.5\sigma$. These results demonstrate that such thermodynamically motivated interactions can address the Hubble tension within a minimal extension of the standard cosmological model.