Probing the time dependence of dark energy

Abstract

A new method to investigate a possible time-dependence of the dark energy equation of state w is proposed. We apply this methodology to a combination of data involving one of the most recent type Ia supernova sample (SNLS3) along with the current baryon acoustic oscillation and H(z) measurements. We show that current observations cannot rule out a non-evolving dark energy component (dw/dz = 0). The approach developed here reduces considerably the so-called smearing effect on w determinations and may be useful to probe a possible evolving dark energy component when applied to upcoming observational data.