Observational Constraints on the Nature of Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey

By W. M. Wood-Vasey, G. Miknaitis, C. Stubbs, S. Jha, A. Riess, P. Garnavich, R. Kirshner, C. Aguilera, A. Becker, J. Blackman and 27 more. 2007

838 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present constraints on the dark energy equation-of-state parameter, w = P/(ρc2), using 60 SNe Ia from the ESSENCE supernova survey. We derive a set of constraints on the nature of the dark energy assuming a flat universe. By including constraints on (ΩM, w) from baryon acoustic oscillations, we obtain a value for a static equation-of-state parameter w = -1.05 (stat 1 σ) ± 0.13 (sys) and ΩM = 0.274 (stat 1 σ) with a best-fit χ2/dof of 0.96. These results are consistent with those reported by the Supernova Legacy Survey from the first year of a similar program measuring supernova distances and redshifts. We evaluate sources of systematic error that afflict supernova observations and present Monte Carlo simulations that explore these effects. Currently, the largest systematic with the potential to affect our measurements is the treatment of extinction due to dust in the supernova host galaxies. Combining our set of ESSENCE SNe Ia with the first-results Supernova Legacy Survey SNe Ia, we obtain a joint constraint of w = -1.07 (stat 1 σ) ± 0.13 (sys), ΩM = 0.267 (stat 1 σ) with a best-fit χ2/dof of 0.91. The current global SN Ia data alone rule out empty (ΩM = 0), matter-only ΩM = 0.3, and ΩM = 1 universes at >4.5 σ. The current SN Ia data are fully consistent with a cosmological constant.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/37cf5dc17c3e8fb51981325a27e0708ffb6be06a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

New constraints on dark energy from the observed growth of the most X-ray luminous galaxy clusters (2007, methodology): “…in that work and the SNIa results are derived from the compilation of Davis et al. (2007), which includes data from the ESSENCE survey (60 targets; Wood-Vasey et al. 2007; Miknaitis et al. 2007), c© 2008 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–15 the SNLS first year data (57 targets; Astier et al. 2006), 45 nearby…”
The detectability of baryonic acoustic oscillations in future galaxy surveys. (2007, methodology): “For example, Wood-Vasey et al. (2007) combine high redshift SNe Ia from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey with the measurement of the BAO made by Eisenstein et al. (2005), and, assuming a flat universe, constrain a constant equation of state to have w = −1.05+0.13 −0.12(stat.)”
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration (2012, methodology): “In the analysis of Wood-Vasey et al. (2007), different priors about host galaxy extinction change the inferred value of w by amounts comparable to the statistical error.”
THE CARNEGIE SUPERNOVA PROJECT: SECOND PHOTOMETRY DATA RELEASE OF LOW-REDSHIFT TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE (2010, background): “The current data have revealed that the equation-of- state parameter of the dark energy, w = P/(ρc2), is consistent with a cosmological constant, w = −1 (Astier et al. 2006; Wood-Vasey et al. 2007; Riess et al. 2007; Freedman et al. 2009; Sullivan et al. 2011).”
Improved Cosmological Constraints from New, Old, and Combined Supernova Data Sets (2008, methodology): “Until recently, the SN Ia compilations (e.g., Riess et al. 1998; Perlmutter et al. 1999; Tonry et al. 2003; Knop et al. 2003; Astier et al. 2006; Wood-Vasey et al. 2007) primarily consisted of a relatively uniform high-redshift (z 0:5) data set from a single study put together with a low-redshift…”
FIRST-YEAR SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY-II SUPERNOVA RESULTS: HUBBLE DIAGRAM AND COSMOLOGICAL PARAMETERS (2009, methodology): “…errors associated with analysis methods and assumptions, we perform a nearly uniform analysis on data from SDSS-II, the published data from ESSENCE (Wood-Vasey et al. (2007); hereafter WV07), SNLS (Astier et al. 2006), HST (Riess et al. 2007), and a nearby SN Ia sample collected over a decade…”
THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY: SEARCH ALGORITHM AND FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS (2007, methodology): “…Telescope Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS1; Astier et al. 2006) and the Equation of State: Supernovae Trace Cosmic Expansion (ESSENCE2; Wood-Vasey et al. 2007; Miknaitis et al. 2007) – and from space using the HST (Riess et al. 2004a, 2007; Barbary et al. 2006) have substantially…”