Related papers: Living in a Void: Testing the Copernican Principle…
The possibility that we live in a special place in the universe, close to the center of a large, radially inhomogeneous void, has attracted attention recently as an alternative to dark energy or modified gravity to explain the accelerating…
Inhomogeneous universe models have been proposed as an alternative explanation for the apparent acceleration of the cosmic expansion that does not require dark energy. In the simplest class of inhomogeneous models, we live within a large,…
The Copernican principle, stating that we do not occupy any special place in our universe, is usually taken for granted in modern cosmology. However recent observational data of supernova indicate that we may live in the under-dense center…
The recent discovery of apparent cosmic acceleration has highlighted the depth of our ignorance of the fundamental properties of nature. It is commonly assumed that the explanation for acceleration must come from a new form of energy…
Observations of distances to Type-Ia supernovae can be explained by cosmological models that include either a gigaparsec-scale void, or a cosmic flow, without the need for Dark Energy. Instead of invoking dark energy, these inhomogeneous…
Assuming the universe is spatially homogeneous on the largest scales lays the foundation for almost all cosmology. This idea is based on the Copernican principle, that we are not at a particularly special place in the universe.…
The blackbody nature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation spectrum is used in a modern test of the Copernican Principle. The reionized universe serves as a mirror to reflect CMB photons, thereby permitting a view of ourselves…
While low-z Type Ia supernovae are used to measure the present rate of expansion of the Universe, high-z Type Ia measure its variation due to the cosmic matter-energy content. Results from those determinations imply a low matter density…
There has been considerable interest in recent years in cosmological models in which we inhabit a very large, underdense void as an alternative to dark energy. A longstanding objection to this proposal is that observations limit our…
The discovery of dark energy by the first generation of high-redshift supernova surveys has generated enormous interest beyond cosmology and has dramatic implications for fundamental physics. Distance measurements using supernova explosions…
We focus on uncertainties in supernova measurements, in particular of individual magnitudes and redshifts, to review to what extent supernovae measurements of the expansion history of the universe are likely to allow us to constrain a…
A new component of the Universe which leads to an accelerated cosmic expansion is found from the measurements of distances to high-redshift type Ia supernovae. We describe the method and the results obtained from the observations of distant…
Currently available Type Ia distant supernovae observed data seem to support evidence that the cosmic expansion of the universe is accelerating. This unexpected result is beyond any standard model of modern cosmology. The new concept…
We discuss recent evidence for an accelerating Universe from measurements of type Ia supernovae at high redshift, and describe tests of various systematic effects such as extinction and evolution that could be biasing the cosmological…
The observation that Type Ia supernovae are fainter than expected given their red shifts has led to the conclusion that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The widely accepted hypothesis is that this acceleration is caused by a…
ecent observations of type Ia supernovae indicate that the Universe is in an accelerating phase of expansion. The fundamental quest in theoretical cosmology is to identify the origin of this phenomenon. In principle there are two…
The Copernican principle (CP), i.e. the assumption that we are not privileged observers of the Universe, is a fundamental tenet of the standard cosmological model. A violation of this postulate implies the possibility that the apparent…
Type Ia supernovae are a powerful cosmological probe, that gave the first strong evidence that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Here we provide an overview of how supernovae can go further to reveal information about what is…
The measured luminosity distances of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as a function of redshift have shown that the expansion of the Universe is currently accelerating, probably due to the presence of repulsive dark energy such as Einstein's…
Observations of high redshift supernovae imply an accelerating Universe which can only be explained by an unusual energy component such as vacuum energy or quintessence. To assess the ability of current and future supernova data to…