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Living in a void: testing the Copernican principle with distant supernovae
Timothy Clifton1, Pedro G Ferreira, Kate Land
1Department of Physics, Oxford Astrophysics, DWB, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, United Kingdom. tclifton@astro.ox.ac.uk
Physical Review Letters
|October 15, 2008
Summary
We can test the Copernican principle using the redshift dependence of luminosity distance. Future supernova surveys will validate this principle and probe dark energy's role in the Universe.
Area of Science:
- Cosmology
- Astrophysics
Background:
- The Copernican principle posits a universe without a special central location.
- Observational cosmology seeks to verify fundamental cosmological principles.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the Copernican principle using luminosity distance-redshift data.
- To assess the necessity of dark energy in cosmological models.
Main Methods:
- Analyzing the local redshift dependence of luminosity distance.
- Utilizing future Type Ia supernovae surveys.
Main Results:
- The luminosity distance-redshift relation offers a method to test the Copernican principle.
- Specific redshift ranges (0.1-0.4) are optimal for these tests.
Conclusions:
- Future supernova surveys can observationally validate the Copernican principle on new scales.
- These surveys will also constrain the role of dark energy in the Universe.
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