Constraining Dark Energy and Cosmological Transition Redshift with Type Ia Supernovae

The property of dark energy and the physical reason for the acceleration of the present universe are two of the most difficult problems in modern cosmology. The dark energy contributes about two-thirds of the critical density of the present universe from the observations of type-Ia supernovae （SNe Ia） and anisotropy of cosmic microwave background （CMB）. The SN Ia observations also suggest that the universe expanded from a deceleration to an acceleration phase at some redshift, implying the existence of a nearly uniform component of dark energy with negative pressure. We use the ＂Gold＂ sample containing 157 SNe Ia and two recent well-measured additions, SNe Ia 1994ae and 1998aq to explore the properties of dark energy and the transition redshift. For a fiat universe with the cosmological constant, we measure ΩM=0.28-0.05^＋0.04 which is consistent with Riess et al. The transition redshift is zT=0.60-0.08^＋0.04. We also discuss several dark energy models that define w（z） of the parameterized equation of state of dark energy including one parameter and two parameters （w（z） being the ratio of the pressure to energy density）. Our calculations show that the accurately calculated transition redshift varies from zT =0.29-0.06^＋0.07 to zT =0.60-0.08^＋0.06 across these models. We also calculate the minimum redshift zc at which the current observations need the universe to accelerate.

The Peak Luminosity of Type Ia Supernovae and its Implications for the Cosmic Expansion Rate

Supernovae of type Ia (SNe Ia) are confirmed to be the best distance indicators to derive the cosmic expansion rate. The dispersion of their peak luminosity at optical bands (BVI) is approximate to 0.13 mag, after taking into account the effects of the second parameters (i.e., the Antial decline rate m15(B) and (B - V) color at maximum light). The local calibrations from HST indicate an absolute magnitude of 19.48 ± 0.08mag (in V band) for SNe Ia in spiral galaxies. The current expansion rate, Ho, is found to be 63.6 ± 1.8 (random) ±5.7 (systematic) kms-1 Mpc-1. This Value will decrease by 3% when the metallicity effect on the cepheid distances is considered. In addition, a marginal local outward flow of 4.0 ± 4.5% within the velocity-distance of 7000 km s-1 can be inferred from SNe Ia for the Einstein-de Sitter universe; however, this outward flow is only 2.2 ± 4.4% for an accelerating expansion universe (which is supported by high-z SNe Ia).

Quark-Novae Ia in the Hubble diagram: implications for dark energy

The accelerated expansion of the Universe was proposed through the use of Type-Ia supernovae （SNe） as standard candles. The standardization depends on an empirical correlation between the stretch/color and peak luminosity of the light curves. The use of Type-Ia SNe as standard candles rests on the assumption that their properties （and this correlation） do not vary with redshift. We consider the possibility that the majority of Type-Ia SNe are in fact caused by a Quark-Nova detonation in a tight neutron-star-CO-white-dwarf binary system, which forms a Quark-Nova Ia （QN-Ia）. The spin-down energy injected by the Quark-Nova remnant （the quark star） contributes to the post-peak light curve and neatly explains the observed correlation between peak luminosity and light curve shape. We demonstrate that the parameters describing QN-Ia are NOT constant in redshift. Simulated QN-Ia light curves provide a test of the stretch/color correlation by comparing the true distance modulus with that determined using SN light curve fitters. We determine a correction between the true and fitted distance moduli, which when applied to Type-Ia SNe in the Hubble diagram recovers the ΩM = 1 cosmology. We conclude that Type-Ia SNe observations do not necessitate the need for an accelerating expansion of the Universe （if the observed SNe Ia are dominated by QNe Ia） and by association the need for dark energy.

A critique of supernova data analysis in cosmology

Observational astronomy has shown significant growth over the last decade and has made important contributions to cosmology. A major paradigm shift in cosmology was brought about by observations of Type Ia supernovae. The notion that the universe is accelerating has led to several theoretical challenges. Unfortunately, although high-quality supernovae data-sets are being produced, their statistical anal- ysis leaves much to be desired. Instead of using the data to directly test the model, several studies seem to concentrate on assuming the model to be correct and limiting themselves to estimating model parameters and internal errors. As shown here, the important purpose of testing a cosmological theory is thereby vitiated.

Testing X-ray measurements of galaxy cluster gas mass fraction using the cosmic distance-duality relation

We propose a consistency test for some recent X-ray gas mass fraction （fgas） measurements in galaxy clusters, using the cosmic distance-duality relation, Ttneory = DL（1 ＋ Z）-2/DA, with luminosity distance （DL） data from the Union2 compilation of type Ia supernovae. We set Z/theory = 1, instead of assigning any red- shift parameterizations to it, and constrain the cosmological information preferred by fga8 data along with supernova observations. We adopt a new binning method in the reduction of the Union2 data, in order to minimize the statistical errors. Four data sets of X-ray gas mass fraction, which are reported by Allen et al. （two samples）, LaRoque et al. and Ettori et al., are analyzed in detail in the context of two theoretical models of fgas. The results from the analysis of Alien et al.＇s samples demonstrate the feasibility of our method. It is found that the preferred cosmology by LaRoque et al.＇s sample is consistent with its reference cosmology within the 1σ confidence level. However, for Ettori et al.＇s fgas sample, the inconsistency can reach more than a 3σ confidence level and this dataset shows special preference to an ΩA = 0 cosmology.