English

Measuring the metric: a parametrized post-Friedmanian approach to the cosmic dark energy problem

Astrophysics 2009-10-07 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

We argue for a ``parametrized post-Friedmanian'' approach to linear cosmology, where the history of expansion and perturbation growth is measured without assuming that the Einstein Field Equations hold. As an illustration, a model-independent analysis of 92 type Ia supernovae demonstrates that the curve giving the expansion history has the wrong shape to be explained without some form of dark energy or modified gravity. We discuss how upcoming lensing, galaxy clustering, cosmic microwave background and Lyman alpha forest observations can be combined to pursue this program, which generalizes the quest for a dark energy equation of state, and forecast the accuracy that the proposed SNAP satellite can attain.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0101354,
  title  = {Measuring the metric: a parametrized post-Friedmanian approach to the cosmic dark energy problem},
  author = {Max Tegmark},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0101354},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Replaced to match accepted PRD version. References and another example added, section III omitted since superceded by astro-ph/0207047. 11 PRD pages, 7 figs. Color figs and links at http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/gravity.html or from [email protected]