Type Ia Supernovae Data Research Articles

Connecting inflation with late cosmic acceleration by particle production

A continuous process of creation of particles is investigated as a possible connection between the inflationary stage with late cosmic acceleration. In this model, the inflationary era occurs due to a continuous and fast process of creation of relativistic particles, and the recent accelerating phase is driven by the nonrelativistic matter creation from the gravitational field acting on the quantum vacuum, which finally results in an effective equation of state (EoS) less than [Formula: see text]. Thus, explaining recent results in favor of a phantom dynamics without the need of any modifications in the gravity theory has been proposed. Finally, we confront the model with recent observational data of type Ia Supernova, history of the Hubble parameter, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) and the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

Test of the Cosmic Transparency with the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and Type Ia Supernova Data**Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos 11175093, 11222545, 11435006 and 11375092, and the K. C. Wong Magna Fund of Ningbo University.

We use the latest baryon acoustic oscillation and Union 2.1 type Ia supernova data to test the cosmic opacity between different redshift regions without assuming any cosmological models. It is found that the universe may be opaque between the redshift regions 0.35–0.44, 0.44–0.57 and 0.6–0.73 since the best fit values of cosmic opacity in these regions are positive, while a transparent universe is favored in the redshift region 0.57–0.63. However, in general, a transparent universe is still consistent with observations at the 1σ confidence level.

The distance duality relation test from the ACT cluster and type Ia supernova data

The validity of the cosmic distance-duality (DD) relation is investigated by using 91 measurements of the gas mass fraction of galaxy clusters recently reported by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) and the luminosity distance from the Union2.1 type Ia supernova (SNIa) sample independent of any cosmological models and the value of the Hubble constant. We consider four different approaches to derive the gas mass function and two different parameterizations of the DD relation, and find that they have very slight influences on the DD relation test and the relation is valid at the 1σ confidence level. We also discuss the constraints on α and β, which represent the effects of the shapes and colors of the light curves of SNIa, respectively. Our results on α and β are different from those obtained from the ΛCDM model and the galaxy cluster plus SNIa data.

Sampling the probability distribution of Type Ia Supernova lightcurve parameters in cosmological analysis

In order to obtain robust cosmological constraints from Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) data, we have applied Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) to SN Ia lightcurve fitting. We develop a method for sampling the resultant probability density distributions (pdf) of the SN Ia lightcuve parameters in the MCMC likelihood analysis to constrain cosmological parameters, and validate it using simulated data sets. Applying this method to the Joint Lightcurve Analysis (JLA) data set of SNe Ia, we find that sampling the SN Ia lightcurve parameter pdf's leads to cosmological parameters closer to that of a flat Universe with a cosmological constant, compared to the usual practice of using only the best fit values of the SN Ia lightcurve parameters. Our method will be useful in the use of SN Ia data for precision cosmology.

Testing the mapping between redshift and cosmic scale factor

The canonical redshift-scale factor relation, 1/a=1+z, is a key element in the standard LambdaCDM model of the big bang cosmology. Despite its fundamental role, this relation has not yet undergone any observational tests since Lemaitre and Hubble established the expansion of the Universe. It is strictly based on the assumption of the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker metric describing a locally homogeneous and isotropic universe and that photons move on null geodesics of the metric. Thus any violation of this assumption, within general relativity or modified gravity, can yield a different mapping between the model redshift z=1/a-1 and the actually observed redshift z_obs, i.e. z_obs neq z. Here we perform a simple test of consistency for the standard redshift-scale factor relation by determining simultaneous observational constraints on the concordance LambdaCDM cosmological parameters and a generalized redshift mapping z=f(z_obs). Using current baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) and Type Ia supernova (SN) data we demonstrate that the generalized redshift mapping is strongly degenerated with dark energy. Marginalization over a class of monotonic functions f(z_obs) changes substantially degeneracy between matter and dark energy density: the density parameters become anti correlated with nearly vertical axis of degeneracy. Furthermore, we show that current SN and BAO data, analysed in a framework with the generalized redshift mapping, do not constrain dark energy unless the BAO data include the measurements from the Ly-alpha forest of high-redshift quasars.

Degeneracy and discreteness in cosmological model fitting

We explore the problems of degeneracy and discreteness in the standard cosmological model (ΛCDM). We use the Observational Hubble Data (OHD) and the type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data to study this issue. In order to describe the discreteness in fitting of data, we define a factor G to test the influence from each single data point and analyze the goodness of G. Our results indicate that a higher absolute value of G shows a better capability of distinguishing models, which means the parameters are restricted into smaller confidence intervals with a larger figure of merit evaluation. Consequently, we claim that the factor G is an effective way of model differentiation when using different models to fit the observational data.

Probing the cosmic distance duality with strong gravitational lensing and supernovae Ia data

We propose and perform a new test of the cosmic distance-duality relation (CDDR), DL(z) / DA(z) (1 + z)2 = 1, where DA is the angular diameter distance and DL is the luminosity distance to a given source at redshift z, using strong gravitational lensing (SGL) and type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) data. We show that the ratio D=DA12/DA2 and D*=DL12/DL2, where the subscripts 1 and 2 correspond, respectively, to redshifts z1 and z2, are linked by D/D*=(1+z1)2 if the CDDR is valid. We allow departures from the CDDR by defining two functions for η(z1), which equals unity when the CDDR is valid. We find that combination of SGL and SNe Ia data favours no violation of the CDDR at 1σ confidence level (η(z) ≃ 1), in complete agreement with other tests and reinforcing the theoretical pillars of the CDDR.

Testing models of vacuum energy interacting with cold dark matter

We test the models of vacuum energy interacting with cold dark matter and try to probe the possible deviation from the $\Lambda$CDM model using current observations. We focus on two specific models, $Q=3\beta H\rho_{\Lambda}$ and $Q=3\beta H\rho_c$. The data combinations come from the Planck 2013 data, the baryon acoustic oscillations measurements, the type-Ia supernovae data, the Hubble constant measurement, the redshift space distortions data and the galaxy weak lensing data. For the $Q=3\beta H\rho_c$ model, we find that it can be tightly constrained by all the data combinations, while for the $Q=3\beta H\rho_{\Lambda}$ model, there still exist significant degeneracies between parameters. The tightest constraints for the coupling constant are $\beta=-0.026^{+0.036}_{-0.053}$ (for $Q=3\beta H\rho_{\Lambda}$) and $\beta=-0.00045\pm0.00069$ (for $Q=3\beta H\rho_c$) at the $1\sigma$ level. For all the fit results, we find that the null interaction $\beta=0$ is always consistent with data. Our work completes the discussion on the interacting dark energy model in the recent Planck 2015 papers. Considering this work together with the Planck 2015 results, it is believed that there is no evidence for the models beyond the standard $\Lambda$CDM model from the point of view of possible interaction.

Fine-structure constant constraints on dark energy. II. Extending the parameter space

Astrophysical tests of the stability of fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, are a powerful probe of new physics. Recently these measurements, combined with local atomic clock tests and Type Ia supernova and Hubble parameter data, were used to constrain the simplest class of dynamical dark energy models where the same degree of freedom is assumed to provide both the dark energy and (through a dimensionless coupling, $\zeta$, to the electromagnetic sector) the $\alpha$ variation. One caveat of these analyses was that it was based on fiducial models where the dark energy equation of state was described by a single parameter (effectively its present day value, $w_0$). Here we relax this assumption and study broader dark energy model classes, including the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder and Early Dark Energy parametrizations. Even in these extended cases we find that the current data constrains the coupling $\zeta$ at the $10^{-6}$ level and $w_0$ to a few percent (marginalizing over other parameters), thus confirming the robustness of earlier analyses. On the other hand, the additional parameters are typically not well constrained. We also highlight the implications of our results for constraints on violations of the Weak Equivalence Principle and improvements to be expected from forthcoming measurements with high-resolution ultra-stable spectrographs.

Precise astronomical flux calibration and its impact on studying the nature of the dark energy

Measurements of the luminosity of Type Ia supernovae versus redshift provided the original evidence for the accelerating expansion of the Universe and the existence of dark energy. Despite substantial improvements in survey methodology, systematic uncertainty in flux calibration dominates the error budget for this technique, exceeding both statistics and other systematic uncertainties. Consequently, any further collection of Type Ia supernova data will fail to refine the constraints on the nature of dark energy unless we also improve the state of the art in astronomical flux calibration to the order of 1%. We describe how these systematic errors arise from calibration of instrumental sensitivity, atmospheric transmission and Galactic extinction, and discuss ongoing efforts to meet the 1% precision challenge using white dwarf stars as celestial standards, exquisitely calibrated detectors as fundamental metrologic standards, and real-time atmospheric monitoring.

Cosmological implications of baryon acoustic oscillation measurements

We derive constraints on cosmological parameters and tests of dark energy models from the combination of baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements with cosmic microwave background (CMB) and Type Ia supernova (SN) data. We take advantage of high-precision BAO measurements from galaxy clustering and the Ly-alpha forest (LyaF) in the BOSS survey of SDSS-III. BAO data alone yield a high confidence detection of dark energy, and in combination with the CMB angular acoustic scale they further imply a nearly flat universe. Combining BAO and SN data into an "inverse distance ladder" yields a 1.7% measurement of $H_0=67.3 \pm1.1$ km/s/Mpc. This measurement assumes standard pre-recombination physics but is insensitive to assumptions about dark energy or space curvature, so agreement with CMB-based estimates that assume a flat LCDM cosmology is an important corroboration of this minimal cosmological model. For open LCDM, our BAO+SN+CMB combination yields $\Omega_m=0.301 \pm 0.008$ and curvature $\Omega_k=-0.003 \pm 0.003$. When we allow more general forms of evolving dark energy, the BAO+SN+CMB parameter constraints remain consistent with flat LCDM. While the overall $\chi^2$ of model fits is satisfactory, the LyaF BAO measurements are in moderate (2-2.5 sigma) tension with model predictions. Models with early dark energy that tracks the dominant energy component at high redshifts remain consistent with our constraints. Expansion history alone yields an upper limit of 0.56 eV on the summed mass of neutrino species, improving to 0.26 eV if we include Planck CMB lensing. Standard dark energy models constrained by our data predict a level of matter clustering that is high compared to most, but not all, observational estimates. (Abridged)

Updated f(T) gravity constraints from high-redshift cosmography

In the last dozen years, a wide and variegated mass of observational data revealed that the universe is now expanding at an accelerated rate. In the absence of a well-based theory to interpret the observations, cosmography provides information about the evolution of the universe from measured distances, only assuming that the geometry can be described by the Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker metric. In this paper, we perform a high-redshift analysis which allows us to put constraints on the cosmographic parameters up to the fifth-order, thus inducing indirect constraints on any gravity theory. Here, we are interested in the so-called teleparallel gravity theory, [Formula: see text]. Actually, we use the analytical expressions of the present day values of [Formula: see text] and its derivatives as functions of the cosmographic parameters to map the cosmography region of confidences into confidence ranges for [Formula: see text] and its derivative. Moreover, we show how these can be used to test some teleparallel gravity models without solving the dynamical equations. Our analysis is based on the Union2 Type Ia supernovae (SNIa) data set, a set of 28 measurements of the Hubble parameter, the Hubble diagram constructed from some gamma ray bursts (GRB) luminosity distance indicators and Gaussian priors on the distance from the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAOs) and the Hubble constant [Formula: see text]. To perform our statistical analysis and to explore the probability distributions of the cosmographic parameters, we use the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method.

Constraints on the interacting dark energy with Hubble parameter data and other observational data

We constrain an interacting dark energy model with the Hubble parameter data ( OHD ), as well as the cosmic microwave background ( CMB ) observations from the Planck first data release, the baryonic acoustic oscillation ( BAO ) observations and the type Ia supernovae ( SNe ) data. The model parameters are determined by applying the maximum likelihood method of X 2 fitting by using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method. The best-fit values of the model parameters with OHD + SNe + CMB + BAO are and Ωm =0.2919-0.0075+0.0075(1σ)-0.0144+0.0151(2σ), wX =-1.0374-0.0452+0.0453(1σ)-0.0886+0.0898(2σ), ξ =3.0976-0.1609+0.1600(1σ)-0.3189+0.3153(2σ), and H0 =69.6479-0.8563+0.8580(1σ)-1.6768+1.6919(2σ). The energy is transferred from dark energy to dark matter. The coincidence problem is slightly alleviated in 1 s range. For comparison, we constrain this model with OHD+BAO+CMB and SNe+CMB + BAO . The results are as follows: (1) It is shown that the OHD can give more stringent constraints on the interacting dark energy model when combined with SNe , CMB and BAO observations, OHD has the potential to alleviate coincidence problem. (2) The special case ( ξ +3 wX , corresponding to the ΛCDM model with no interaction) is within 1 σ confidence level with the OHD + CMB + BAO , SNe + CMB + BAO , and OHD + SNe + CMB + BAO combinations.

Cosmological constraints on superconducting dark energy models

We consider cosmological tests of a scalar-vector-tensor gravitational model, in which the dark energy is included in the total action through a gauge invariant, electromagnetic type contribution. The ground state of dark energy, corresponding to a constant potential $V$ is a Bose-Einstein type condensate with spontaneously broken U(1) symmetry. In another words dark energy appears as a massive vector field emerging from a superposition of a massless vector and a scalar field, the latter corresponding to the Goldstone boson. Two particular cosmological models, corresponding to pure electric and pure magnetic type potentials, respectively are confronted with Type IA Supernovae and Hubble parameter data. In the electric case good fit is obtained along a narrow inclined stripe in the $\Omega _{m}-\Omega _{V}\,$ parameter plane, which includes the $\Lambda $CDM limit as the best fit. The other points on this admissible region represent superconducting dark energy as a sum of a cosmological constant and a time-evolving contribution. In the magnetic case the cosmological test selects either i) parameter ranges of the superconducting dark energy allowing for the standard baryonic plus dark matter or ii) a unified superconducting dark matter and dark energy model, additionally including only the baryonic sector.

Type Ia supernovae from violent mergers of carbon–oxygen white dwarfs: polarization signatures

The violent merger of two carbon-oxygen white dwarfs has been proposed as a viable progenitor for some Type Ia supernovae. However, it has been argued that the strong ejecta asymmetries produced by this model might be inconsistent with the low degree of polarisation typically observed in Type Ia supernova explosions. Here, we test this claim by carrying out a spectropolarimetric analysis for the model proposed by Pakmor et al. (2012) for an explosion triggered during the merger of a 1.1 M$_{\odot}$ and 0.9 M$_{\odot}$ carbon-oxygen white dwarf binary system. Owing to the asymmetries of the ejecta, the polarisation signal varies significantly with viewing angle. We find that polarisation levels for observers in the equatorial plane are modest ($\lesssim$ 1 per cent) and show clear evidence for a dominant axis, as a consequence of the ejecta symmetry about the orbital plane. In contrast, orientations out of the plane are associated with higher degrees of polarisation and departures from a dominant axis. While the particular model studied here gives a good match to highly-polarised events such as SN 2004dt, it has difficulties in reproducing the low polarisation levels commonly observed in normal Type Ia supernovae. Specifically, we find that significant asymmetries in the element distribution result in a wealth of strong polarisation features that are not observed in the majority of currently available spectropolarimetric data of Type Ia supernovae. Future studies will map out the parameter space of the merger scenario to investigate if alternative models can provide better agreement with observations.

DARK MATTER ADMIXED TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE

We perform two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations for the thermonuclear explosion of Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarfs with dark matter (DM) cores in Newtonian gravity. We include a 19-isotope nuclear reaction network and make use of the pure turbulent deflagration model as the explosion mechanism in our simulations. Our numerical results show that the general properties of the explosion depend quite sensitively on the mass of the DM core MDM: a larger MDM generally leads to a weaker explosion and a lower mass of synthesized iron-peaked elements. In particular, the total mass of produced can drop from about 0.3 to 0.03 M⊙ as MDM increases from 0.01 to 0.03 M⊙. We have also constructed the bolometric light curves obtained from our simulations and found that our results match well with the observational data of sub-luminous Type Ia supernovae.

Cosmic constraint on the unified model of dark sectors with or without a cosmic string fluid in the varying gravitational constant theory

Observations indicate that most of the universal matter are invisible and the gravitational constant $G(t)$ maybe depends on the time. A theory of the variational $G$ (VG) is explored in this paper, with naturally producing the useful dark components in universe. We utilize the observational data: lookback time data, model-independent gamma ray bursts, growth function of matter linear perturbations, type Ia supernovae data with systematic errors, CMB and BAO to restrict the unified model (UM) of dark components in VG theory. Using the best-fit values of parameters with the covariance matrix, constraints on the variation of $G$ are $(\frac{G}{G_{0}})_{z=3.5}\simeq 1.0015^{+0.0071}_{-0.0075}$ and $(\frac{\dot{G}}{G})_{today}\simeq -0.7252^{+2.3645}_{-2.3645}\times 10^{-13} yr^{-1}$, the small uncertainties around constants. Limit on the equation of state of dark matter is $w_{0dm}=0.0072^{+0.0170}_{-0.0170}$ with assuming $w_{0de}=-1$ in unified model, and dark energy is $w_{0de}=-0.9986^{+0.0011}_{-0.0011}$ with assuming $w_{0dm}=0$ at prior. Restriction on UM parameters are $B_{s}=0.7442^{+0.0137+0.0262}_{-0.0132-0.0292}$ and $\alpha=0.0002^{+0.0206+0.0441}_{-0.0209-0.0422}$ with $1\sigma$ and $2\sigma$ confidence level. In addition, the effect of a cosmic string fluid on unified model in VG theory are investigated. In this case it is found that the $\Lambda$CDM ($\Omega_{s}=0$, $\beta=0$ and $\alpha=0$) is included in this VG-UM model at $1\sigma$ confidence level, and the larger errors are given: $\Omega_{s}=-0.0106^{+0.0312+0.0582}_{-0.0305-0.0509}$ (dimensionless energy density of cosmic string), $(\frac{G}{G_{0}})_{z=3.5}\simeq 1.0008^{+0.0620}_{-0.0584}$ and $(\frac{\dot{G}}{G})_{today}\simeq -0.3496^{+26.3135}_{-26.3135}\times 10^{-13}yr^{-1}$.

A reconstruction of quintessence dark energy

With a parametric form of the equation of state parameter of dark energy, a quintessence potential has been reconstructed. The potential is found to be a generalization of a double exponential potential. The constraints on the parameters are obtained by maximum likelihood analysis using observational Hubble data, type Ia supernova data, baryon acoustic oscillation data and the CMB shift parameter data. Th emodel shows preference towards the phantom behaviour of dark energy.

Consistency test on the cosmic evolution

We propose a new and robust method to test the consistency of the cosmic evolution given by a cosmological model. It is realized by comparing the combined quantity r_d^CMB/D_V^SN, which is derived from the comoving sound horizon r_d from cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements and the effective distance D_V derived from low-redshift Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) data, with direct and independent r_d/D_V obtained by baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements at median redshifts. We apply this test method for the Lambda-CDM and wCDM models, and investigate the consistency of the derived value of r_d/D_V from Planck 2015 and the SN Ia data sets of Union2.1 and JLA (z<1.5), and the r_d/D_V directly given by BAO data from six-degree-field galaxy survey (6dFGS), Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 Main Galaxy Survey (SDSS-DR7 MGS), DR11 of SDSS-III, WiggleZ and Ly-alpha forecast surveys from Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Data (BOSS) DR-11 over 0.1<z<2.36. We find that r_d^CMB/D_V^SN for both non-flat Lambda-CDM and flat wCDM models with Union2.1 and JLA data are well consistent with the BAO and CMB measurements within 1-sigma CL. Future surveys will further tight up the constraints significantly, and provide stronger test on the consistency.

Testing the Distance-Duality Relation from Hubble, Galaxy Clusters and Type Ia Supernovae Data with Model Independent Methods

In this paper, we perform cosmological-model-independent tests for the distance-duality (DD) relation η(z)=D L(1+z)−2/D A by combining the angular diameter distance D A(or comoving distances D c ) with the luminosity distance D L. The D A are provided by two galaxy clusters samples compiled by De Filippis et al. (the elliptical β model), Bonamente et al. (the spherical β model), the D c are obtained from Hubble parameter data and D L are given from the Union2.1 supernovae (SNe) Ia compilation. We employ two methods, i.e., method A: binning the SNe Ia data within the range Δz=|z−z SNe|<0.005, and method B: reconstructing the D L(z) by smoothing the noise of Union2.1 data set over redshift with the Gaussian smoothing function, to obtain D L associated with the redshits of the observed D A or D c. Four parameterizations for η(z), i.e., η(z)=1+η 0 z, η(z)=1+η 0 z/(1+z), η(z)=1+η 0 z/(1+z)2 and η(z)=1−η 0 ln(1+z), are adopted for the DD relation. We find that DD relation is consistent with the present observational data, and the results we obtained are not sensitive to the method and parameterization.