The Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric of varying speed of light (VSL) models is given by
where
k is a constant, related to curvature of space and
is the scale factor. It describes the evolution of the Universe. The coordinates
of the RW metric are called comoving coordinates. The spatial coordinates of objects remain the same, but their physical (proper) distance grows with time as space expands. The cosmic time gives the time a comoving observer measures at
constant. Let the photon be emitted at time
with
and absorbed by an observer located at
at the present epoch
. One can express this time as
, where the time difference
is significantly smaller than the current cosmic time
. This relationship implies that the emitting galaxy is close to our location, and the time it takes for the photon to reach us is negligible compared to the current cosmic time. Thus, one can Taylor expand the scale factor about
where
denotes the value of the scale factor at the present epoch. The so-called cosmographic parameters
,
,
, and
are Hubble, deceleration, jerk, and snap parameters, respectively. They are dimensionless. In cosmology, the Hubble, deceleration, jerk, and snap parameters characterize the first four-time derivatives of the scale factor. These parameters elucidate the rate and acceleration/deceleration of cosmic expansion, serving as valuable tools for comprehending the behavior and expansion history of the Universe. Widely employed in observational data analysis and cosmological research, they aid in probing cosmological models and measuring significant quantities such as the density of matter in the Universe and the equation of state for dark energy. While the scale factor
a is an unobservable quantity, the cosmological redshift
z is an observable physical quantity. Moreover, one can also define the cosmological redshift in the vicinity of small values for
using these parameters as
where
is the present cosmological redshift and equals 0.
Now, let’s apply cosmographic parameters to observable quantities, starting with the Hubble parameter. The Hubble parameter in the Taylor series is
This result holds consistently for both the standard cosmology model (SCM) and VSL models.
Considering a null geodesic in an FLRW metric along the line of sight (LOS), the total LOS comoving distance can be obtained using Equation (
1)
Notably, in contrast to the SCM, the comoving distance
is influenced by the
z-dependent speed of light. Consequently, the transverse comoving distance
can be derived from Equation (
5)
Given that the acceleration of the Universe is a relatively recent phenomenon, we can focus our analysis on the vicinity of small values for the redshift interval
in Equation (
6). For a short redshift interval
, one can expand the Taylor series of
around
Measuring distances to cosmological objects stands as the primary method for probing the cosmic metric and deciphering the expansion history of the Universe. In the meVSL model, the comoving distance at redshift
is given by
where
The transverse comoving distance, denoted as
, can be derived from Equations (
7) and (
8)
The luminosity distance (
) for an object is expressed as
, where
L denotes the luminosity of the observed object (assumed to be known for high-redshift supernovae), and
F represents the energy flux received from the object. This formula describes the luminosity distance in a dynamic, homogeneous, isotropic spacetime. Expressing the luminosity distance as a function of
involves Equations (
3) and (
12)
introducing the concept of the Hubble-free luminosity distance
, which remains independent of
. These results remain consistent with those found in references [
1,
2,
12], barring the impact of the time-varying speed of light. Consequently, by eliminating the derivation terms associated with
c, the obtained results match those of the reference. Notably, our approach doesn’t necessitate relying on lookback time to arrive at these outcomes.