Reduced Hubble Tension in Dark Radiation Models after DESI 2024

We investigate the presence of extra relativistic degrees of freedom in the early Universe, contributing to the effective number of neutrinos $N_\text{eff}$, as $ΔN_\text{eff}\equiv N_\text{eff}-3.044\geq 0$, in light of the recent measurements of Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) by the DESI collaboration. We analyze one-parameter extensions of the $Λ$CDM model where dark radiation (DR) is free streaming or behaves as a perfect fluid, due to self-interactions. We report a significant relaxation of upper bounds on $ΔN_\text{eff}$, with respect to previous BAO data from SDSS+6dFGS, when additionally employing Planck data (and supernovae data from Pantheon+), setting $ΔN_\text{eff}\leq 0.39$ ($95\%$ C.L.) for free streaming DR, and a very mild preference for fluid DR, $ΔN_\text{eff} = 0.221^{+0.088}_{-0.18}$ ($\leq 0.46$, $95\%$ C.L.). Applying constraints from primordial element abundances leads to slightly tighter constraints on $ΔN_\text{eff}$, but they are avoided if DR is produced after Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). For fluid DR we estimate the tension with the SH$_0$ES determination of $H_0$ to be less than $3σ$ and as low as $2σ$, and for free-streaming DR the tension is below $3σ$ if production occurs after BBN. This lesser degree of tension motivates a combination with SH$_0$ES in these cases, resulting in a $4.4σ-5σ$ evidence for dark radiation with $ΔN_\text{eff}\simeq 0.6$ and large improvements in $χ^2$ over $Λ$CDM, $-18\lesssim Δχ^2\lesssim -25$. Upcoming data releases by DESI and other CMB and LSS surveys will decisively confirm or disfavour this conclusion.