Type Ia Supernovae and Cosmology

Abstract

I discuss the use of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) for cosmological distance determinations. Low-redshift SNe Ia (z < 0.1) demonstrate that the Hubble expansion is linear with H_0 = 72 +/- 8 km/s/Mpc, and that the properties of dust in other galaxies are generally similar to those of dust in the Milky Way. The measured luminosity distances of SNe Ia as a function of redshift have shown that the expansion of the Universe is currently accelerating, probably due to the presence of repulsive dark energy such as Einstein's cosmological constant (Lambda). From about 200 SNe Ia, we find that Omega_Lambda - 1.4 Omega_M = 0.35 +/- 0.14. Combining our data with other results, we find a best fit for Omega_M and Omega_Lambda of 0.28 and 0.72, respectively. A number of possible systematic effects (dust, supernova evolution) thus far do not seem to eliminate the need for Omega_Lambda > 0. Recently, analyses of SNe Ia at z = 1.0-1.7 provide further support for current acceleration, and give tentative evidence for an early epoch of deceleration. The dynamical age of the Universe is estimated to be 13.1 +/- 1.5 Gyr. According to the most recent data sets, the SN Ia rate at z > 1 is several times greater than that at low redshifts, presumably because of higher star formation rates long ago. Moreover, the typical delay time from progenitor star formation to SNIa explosion appears to be substantial, ~3 Gyr. Current projects include the measurement of a few hundred SNe Ia at z = 0.2-0.8 to more accurately determine the equation-of-state parameter of the dark energy, w = P/(ρc^2), whose value is now constrained by SNe Ia to be in the range -1.48 < w < -0.72 at 95% confidence.

39 pages, 17 figures, to be published in "White Dwarfs: Probes of Galactic Structure and Cosmology" ed. E. M. Sion, H. L. Shipman, and S. Vennes (Kluwer: Dordrecht). Part of the Astrophysics and Space Science Library Series

References in corpus (31)

• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Type Ia Supernova Discoveries at z>1 From the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for Past Deceleration and Constraints on Dark Energy Evolution
• Phantom Energy and Cosmic Doomsday
• Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae
• New Constraints on ${\Omega }_M$, ${\Omega }_{\Lambda }$, and w from an Independent Set of Eleven High-Redshift Supernovae Observed with HST
• Can the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w be less than -1?
• 23 High Redshift Supernovae from the IfA Deep Survey: Doubling the SN Sample at z>0.7
• A correlation of the cosmic microwave sky with large scale structure
• SN 2002cx: The Most Peculiar Known Type Ia Supernova
• The Hubble Higher-Z Supernova Search: Supernovae to z=1.6 and Constraints on Type Ia Progenitor Models
• Optical Photometry and Spectroscopy of the SN 1998bw-like Type Ic Supernova 2002ap
• New dark energy constraints from supernovae, microwave background and galaxy clustering
• High Redshift Supernova Rates
• Detection of the ISW and SZ effects from the CMB-Galaxy correlation
• Photometry and Spectroscopy of GRB 030329 and Its Associated Supernova 2003dh: The First Two Months
• Cross-Correlation of the Cosmic Microwave Background with the 2MASS Galaxy Survey: Signatures of Dark Energy, Hot Gas, and Point Sources
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Dark Energy Induced Correlation with Radio Sources
• Optical and Infrared Photometry of the Nearby Type Ia Supernova 2001el
• Hubble Diagrams of Type Ia Supernovae in the Near Infrared
• The Hubble Diagram of Type Ia Supernovae as a Function of Host Galaxy Morphology
• The Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope Gamma-Ray Burst Alert System, and Observations of GRB 020813
• The Early Light Curve of the Optical Afterglow of GRB 021211
• Optical and Infrared Photometry of the Nearby Type Ia Supernovae 1999ee, 2000bh, 2000ca, and 2001ba
• The Redshift Distribution of Type-Ia Supernovae: Constraints on Progenitors and Cosmic Star Formation History
• Identification of Type Ia Supernovae at Redshift 1.3 and Beyond with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on HST
• The Type-Ia Supernova Rate in z < 1 Galaxy Clusters: Implications for Progenitors and the Source of Cluster Iron
• Discovery of Two Distant Type Ia Supernovae in the Hubble Deep Field North with the Advanced Camera for Surveys
• Dark Energy and the Fate of the Universe
• Optical Spectra and Light Curves of Supernovae
• Direct Analysis of Spectra of the Peculiar Type Ia Supernova 2000cx
• Imaging and Demography of the Host Galaxies of High-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae

Cited by in corpus (27)

• Observational Constraints on the Nature of the Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey
• A Redetermination of the Hubble Constant with the Hubble Space Telescope from a Differential Distance Ladder
• First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Results: Hubble Diagram and Cosmological Parameters
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Technical Summary
• First-Year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Results: Constraints on Non-Standard Cosmological Models
• Nearby Supernova Rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search. I. The Methods and Database
• A Golden Standard Type Ia Supernova SN 2005cf: Observations from the Ultraviolet to the Near-Infrared Wavebands
• Improved Standardization of Type II-P Supernovae: Application to an Expanded Sample
• The Collimation and Energetics of the Brightest Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts
• First-year Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) supernova results: consistency and constraints with other intermediate-redshift datasets
• The Chemical Abundances of Tycho G in Supernova Remnant 1572
• The Absolute Magnitudes of Type Ia Supernovae in the Ultraviolet
• Measurements of the Rate of Type Ia Supernovae at Redshift z < ~0.3 from the SDSS-II Supernova Survey
• Constraints on dark energy with the LOSS SN Ia sample
• Properties of the ultraviolet flux of type Ia supernovae: an analysis with synthetic spectra of SN 2001ep and SN 2001eh
• Near-Ultraviolet Properties of a Large Sample of Type Ia Supernovae as Observed with the Swift UVOT
• First-Year Spectroscopy for the SDSS-II Supernova Survey
• Spectroscopy of High-Redshift Supernovae from the ESSENCE Project: The First Four Years
• Subaru and Keck Observations of the Peculiar Type Ia Supernova 2006gz at Late Phases
• Supernovae Ia observations in the Lemaitre--Tolman model
• The Cosmological Constant Problem, an Inspiration for New Physics
• Exploring the Outer Solar System with the ESSENCE Supernova Survey
• Cosmological constraints from low-redshift data
• On the relationship between Type Ia supernova luminosity and host-galaxy properties
• Investigating the dynamical models of cosmology with recent observations and upcoming gravitational-wave data
• Diagnosing the cosmic coincidence problem and its evolution with recent observations
• Joint inference of multiplicative and additive systematics in galaxy density fluctuations and clustering measurements