Observational constraints on quark and strange quark matters in f(R,T) theory of gravity

We have examined a plane symmetric cosmological model in the presence of quark and strange quark matter with the help of f(R,T) theory of gravity. To find solutions for this type of space–time, we applied a power-law relationship between the scale factor and the deceleration parameter. We used a variable deceleration parameter. We applied constraints on the parameters using the R2 test and obtained the best-fit values for the Hubble parameter H(z) using 57 observed data points, achieving an R2 value of 0.9321 and an RMSE of 11.0716. The best-fit parameters were α=0.542−0.022+0.019, β=52.9−2.7+2.3, and c1=−0.877−0.058+0.055, resulting in H0=64.39−0.47+0.04km/s/Mpc. These results show that our model closely matches the ΛCDM model, demonstrating its accuracy in describing the universe's expansion history across the given redshift range. We also discussed cosmological parameters such as spatial volume, the mean anisotropic parameter, the shear scalar, deceleration parameter, energy density and pressure for quark matter and strange quark matter for plane symmetric spacetime. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.