Hubble distancing: Focusing on distance measurements in cosmology
  The Hubble-Lemaitre tension is currently one of the most important questions
in cosmology. Most of the focus so far has been on reconciling the Hubble
constant value inferred from detailed cosmic microwave background measurement
with that from the local distance ladder. This emphasis on one number -- namely
$H_0$ -- misses the fact that the tension fundamentally arises from
disagreements of distance measurements. To be successful, a proposed
cosmological model must accurately fit these distances rather than simply infer
a given value of $H_0$. Using the newly developed likelihood package
`distanceladder', which integrates the local distance ladder into MontePython,
we show that focusing on $H_0$ at the expense of distances can lead to the
spurious detection of new physics in models which change late-time cosmology.
As such, we encourage the observational cosmology community to make their
actual distance measurements broadly available to model builders instead of
simply quoting their derived Hubble constant values.
