Do Type Ia Supernovae prove Lambda > 0 ?
Abstract
The evidence for positive cosmological constant from Type Ia supernovae is reexamined. Both high redshift supernova teams are found to underestimate the effects of host galaxy extinction. The evidence for an absolute magnitude- decay time relation is much weakened if supernovae not observed before maximum light are excluded. Inclusion of such objects artificially supresses the scatter about the mean relation. With a consistent treatment of host galaxy extinction and elimination of supernovae not observed before maximum, the evidence for a positive lambda is not very significant (3-4 ). A factor which may contribute to apparent faintness of high z supernovae is evolution of the host galaxy extinction with z. The Hubble diagram using all high z distance estimates, including SZ clusters and gravitational lens time-delay estimates, does not appear inconsistent with an = 1 model. Although a positive can provide an, albeit physically unmotivated, resolution of the low curvature implied by CMB experiments and evidence that 1 from large-scale structure, the direct evidence from Type Ia supernovae seems at present to be inconclusive.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0201034,
title = {Do Type Ia Supernovae prove Lambda > 0 ?},
author = {Michael Rowan-Robinson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0201034},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
10 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication by MNRAS