Narrowing down the possible explanations of cosmic acceleration with
  geometric probes
  Recent re-calibration of the Type Ia supernova (SNe~Ia) magnitude-redshift
relation combined with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and baryon acoustic
oscillation (BAO) data have provided excellent constraints on the standard
cosmological model. Here, we examine particular classes of alternative
cosmologies, motivated by various physical mechanisms, e.g. scalar fields,
modified gravity and phase transitions to test their consistency with
observations of SNe~Ia and the ratio of the angular diameter distances from the
CMB and BAO. Using a model selection criterion for a relative comparison of the
models (the Bayes Factor), we find moderate to strong evidence that the data
prefer flat $\Lambda$ CDM over models invoking a thawing behaviour of the
quintessence scalar field. However, some exotic models like the growing
neutrino mass cosmology and vacuum metamorphosis still present acceptable
evidence values. The bimetric gravity model with only the linear interaction
term can be ruled out by the combination of SNe~Ia and CMB/BAO datasets whereas
the model with linear and quadratic interaction terms has a comparable evidence
value to standard $\Lambda$ CDM. Thawing models are found to have significantly
poorer evidence compared to flat $\Lambda$ CDM cosmology under the assumption
that the CMB compressed likelihood provides an adequate description for these
non-standard cosmologies. We also present estimates for constraints from future
data and find that geometric probes from oncoming surveys can put severe limits
on non-standard cosmological models.
