Cosmology under Milne's shadow

Abstract

Based on the magnitude--redshift diagram for the sample of supernovae Ia analysed by Perlmutter et al. (1999), Davis & Lineweaver rule out the special relativistic interpretation of cosmological redshifts at a confidence level of 23 sigma. Here, we critically reassess this result. Special relativity is known to describe the dynamics of an empty universe, by means of the Milne kinematic model. Applying only special-relativistic concepts, we derive the angular diameter distance and the luminosity distance in the Milne model. In particular, in this model we do not use the underlying metric in its Robertson-Walker form, so our exposition is useful for readers without any knowledge of general relativity. We do however, explicitly use the special-relativistic Doppler formula for redshift. We apply the derived luminosity distance to the magnitude--redshift diagram for supernovae Ia of Perlmutter et al. (1999) and show that special relativity fits the data much better than that claimed by Davis & Lineweaver. Specifically, using these data alone, the Milne model is ruled out only at a 2 sigma level. Although not a viable cosmological model, in the context of current research on supernovae Ia it remains a useful reference model when comparing predictions of various cosmological models.

5 pages, 1 figure; a didactic article; matches the version accepted for publication in PASA

References in corpus (3)

• Type Ia Supernova Discoveries at z>1 From the Hubble Space Telescope: Evidence for Past Deceleration and Constraints on Dark Energy Evolution
• Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae
• Expanding Confusion: common misconceptions of cosmological horizons and the superluminal expansion of the Universe

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Gravity, antimatter and the Dirac-Milne universe
• Interpretation of the Cosmological Metric
• Is space really expanding? A counterexample
• Expanding space, quasars and St. Augustine's fireworks
• Interacting holographic Ricci dark energy as running vacuum
• Coordinate Confusion in Conformal Cosmology
• Structure formation in a Dirac-Milne universe: comparison with the standard cosmological model
• Reconciling a decelerating Universe with cosmological observations
• Sparse formulae for the distance modulus in cosmology
• Antimatter Gravity and the Results of the ALPHA-g Experiment
• The One-Way Speed of Light and the Milne Universe
• Cosmic-time quantum mechanics and the passage-of-time problem
• Lorentzian correction for the evolution of the CMB temperature
• The Galactic Pizza: Flat Rotation Curves in the Context of Cosmological Time-Energy Coupling