Supernovae as a probe of particle physics and cosmology

Abstract

It has very recently been demonstrated by Csaki, Kaloper and Terning (CKT) that the faintness of supernovae at high redshift can be accommodated by mixing of a light axion with the photon in the presence of an intergalactic magnetic field, as opposed to the usual explanation of an accelerating universe by a dark energy component. In this paper we analyze further aspects of the CKT mechanism and its generalizations. The CKT mechanism also passes various cosmological constraints from the fluctuations of the CMB and the formation of structure at large scales, without requiring an accelerating phase in the expansion of the Universe. We investigate the statistical significance of current supernova data for pinning down the different components of the cosmological energy-momentum tensor and for probing physics beyond the standard models.

17 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures; v2: typos corrected, minor changes, references added; v3: updated figures, details regarding fits included

References in corpus (5)

• Probing the dark energy: methods and strategies
• String Theory and Quintessence
• Dimming Supernovae without Cosmic Acceleration
• The Acceleration of the Universe, a Challenge for String Theory
• Dark Energy in Perturbative String Cosmology

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Exorcising w < -1
• Super-GZK Photons from Photon-Axion Mixing
• Cosmic acceleration vs axion-photon mixing
• Can MAP and Planck map Planck physics?
• Effects of initial axion production and photon--axion oscillation on type Ia supernova dimming
• Dimming of Supernovae by Photon-Pseudoscalar Conversion and the Intergalactic Plasma
• The Accelerated Acceleration of the Universe
• Photon-Axion mixing in an inhomogeneous universe
• Photon Mixing in Domain Walls and the Cosmic Coincidence Problem
• Anisotropies in Non-Thermal Distortions of Cosmic Light from Photon-Axion Conversion
• Sensitivity and Insensitivity of Galaxy Cluster Surveys to New Physics
• Stars and Fundamental Physics