- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine
Access Provided by Xinjiang University

Physical Review D

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Access by Xinjiang University

Null tests of the cosmological constant using supernovae

Sahba Yahya1, Marina Seikel1, Chris Clarkson2, Roy Maartens1,3, and Mathew Smith1

  • 1Physics Department, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
  • 2Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7701, South Africa
  • 3Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, United Kingdom

PDF

Phys. Rev. D 89, 023503 – Published 9 January, 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.023503

Abstract

The standard concordance model of the Universe is based on the cosmological constant as the driver of accelerating expansion. This concordance model is being subjected to a growing range of interlocking observations. In addition to using generic observational tests, one can also design tests that target the specific properties of the cosmological constant. These null tests do not rely on parametrizations of observables, but focus on quantities that are constant only if dark energy is a cosmological constant. We use supernova data in null tests that are based on the luminosity distance. In order to extract derivatives of the distance in a model-independent way, we use Gaussian processes. We find that the concordance model is compatible with the Union 2.1 data, but the error bars are fairly large. Simulated data sets are generated for the Dark Energy Survey supernova survey and we show that this survey will allow for a sharper null test of the cosmological constant if we assume the Universe is flat. Allowing for spatial curvature degrades the power of the null test.

View figure in article

Article Text

References (34)

  1. P. A. R. Ade et al. (Planck Collaboration), arXiv:1303.5076.
  2. T. Clifton, P. G. Ferreira, A. Padilla, and C. Skordis, Phys. Rep. 513, 1 (2012).
  3. T. Abbott et al. (DES Collaboration), arXiv:astro-ph/0510346.
  4. P. A. Abell et al. (LSST Collaboration), arXiv:0912.0201.
  5. R. Laureijs et al. (EUCLID Collaboration), arXiv:1110.3193.
  6. C. A. Blake, F. B. Abdalla, S. L. Bridle, and S. Rawlings, New Astron. Rev. 48, 1063 (2004).
  7. C. Clarkson, B. Bassett, and T. H.-C. Lu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 011301 (2008).
  8. J.-P. Uzan, C. Clarkson, and G. F. R. Ellis, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 191303 (2008).
  9. C. Zunckel and C. Clarkson, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 181301 (2008).
  10. V. Sahni, A. Shafieloo, and A. A. Starobinsky, Phys. Rev. D 78, 103502 (2008).
  11. A. Shafieloo and C. Clarkson, Phys. Rev. D 81, 083537 (2010).
  12. C. Clarkson, AIP Conf. Proc. 1241, 784 (2010).
  13. S. Nesseris and A. Shafieloo, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 408, 1879 (2010).
  14. M. Seikel, S. Yahya, R. Maartens, and C. Clarkson, Phys. Rev. D 86, 083001 (2012).
  15. C. Clarkson, C.R. Phys. 13, 682 (2012).
  16. A. Conley, J. Guy, M. Sullivan, N. Regnault, P. Astier, C. Balland et al., Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 192, 1 (2011).
  17. N. Suzuki, D. Rubin, C. Lidman, G. Aldering, R. Amanullah, K. Barbary et al., Astrophys. J. 746, 85 (2012).
  18. H. Campbell, C. B. D’Andrea, R. C. Nichol, M. Sako, M. Smith, H. Lampeitl et al., Astrophys. J. 763, 88 (2013).
  19. D. Scolnic, A. Rest, A. Riess, M. E. Huber, R. J. Foley, D. Brout, R. Chornock, G. Narayan et al., arXiv:1310.3824.
  20. A. Rest, D. Scolnic, R. J. Foley, M. E. Huber, R. Chornock, G. Narayan, J. L. Tonry, E. Berger et al., arXiv:1310.3828.
  21. J. P. Bernstein, R. Kessler, S. Kuhlmann, R. Biswas, E. Kovacs, G. Aldering et al., Astrophys. J. 753, 152 (2012).
  22. T. Holsclaw, U. Alam, B. Sanso, H. Lee, K. Heitmann, S. Habib, and D. Higdon, Phys. Rev. D 82, 103502 (2010).
  23. T. Holsclaw, U. Alam, B. Sanso, H. Lee, K. Heitmann, S. Habib, and D. Higdon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 241302 (2010).
  24. T. Holsclaw, U. Alam, B. Sanso, H. Lee, K. Heitmann, S. Habib, and D. Higdon, Phys. Rev. D 84, 083501 (2011).
  25. M. Seikel, C. Clarkson, and M. Smith, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 06 (2012) 036.
  26. A. Shafieloo, A. G. Kim, and E. V. Linder, Phys. Rev. D 85, 123530 (2012).
  27. A. A. Starobinsky, JETP Lett. 68, 757 (1998).
  28. T. Nakamura and T. Chiba, Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 306, 696 (1999).
  29. D. Huterer and M. S. Turner, Phys. Rev. D 60, 081301 (1999).
  30. M. Seikel and C. Clarkson, arXiv:1311.6678.
  31. C. Rasmussen and C. Williams, Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2006).
  32. D. MacKay, Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2003).
  33. C. Clarkson, M. Cortes, and B. A. Bassett, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 08 (2007) 011.
  34. R. Hlozek, M. Cortes, C. Clarkson, and B. Bassett, Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 40, 285 (2008).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 89, 023503– Published 9 January, 2014
  • Received 15 October 2013

© 2014 American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation