Related papers: Supernova Cosmology and the Fine Structure Constan…
Astrophysical tests of the stability of dimensionless fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, are an area of much increased recent activity, following some indications of possible spacetime variations at the few…
By employing Dirac LNH, and a further generalization by Berman (GLNH), we estimate how should vary the total number of nucleons, the energy density, Newton Gravitational constant, the cosmological constant, the magnetic permeability and…
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…
Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have been intensively investigated due to its great homogeneity and high luminosity, which make it possible to use them as standardizable candles for the determination of cosmological parameters. In 2011, the…
The use of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as cosmological standard candles is a key to solving the mystery of dark energy. Improving the calibration of SNe Ia increases their power as cosmological standard candles. We find tentative evidence…
Calculation of the Dirac hydrogen atom spectrum in the framework of dynamical fine structure constant (alpha) variability discloses a small departure in the laboratory from Sommerfeld's formula for the fine structure shifts, possibly…
The properties of supernovae (SNe) are reviewed. It is shown that the observed characteristics of the morphological classes of SNe (types Ia, Ib/c, II) can be explained in terms of two basic explosion mechanisms, i.e. core collapse of…
We explore a possible time variation of the fine structure constant ($\alpha \equiv e^2/\hbar c$) using the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect measurements of galaxy clusters along with their X-ray observations. Specifically, the ratio of the…
The use of Type Ia supernovae as calibrated standard candles is one of the most powerful tools to study the expansion history of the universe and thereby its energy components. While the analysis of some ~50 supernovae at redshifts around…
We study the relation of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) with host galaxies from a large low redshift sample. By examining the Hubble residuals of the entire sample from the best-fit cosmology, we show that SNe Ia in passive hosts are brighter…
We detect the correlated peculiar velocities of nearby type Ia supernovae (SNe), while highlighting an error in some of the literature. We find sigma_8=0.79 +/- 0.22 from SNe, and examine the potential of this method to constrain…
We introduce a method for identifying "twin" Type Ia supernovae, and using them to improve distance measurements. This novel approach to Type Ia supernova standardization is made possible by spectrophotometric time series observations from…
Recent theoretical ideas and observational claims suggest that the fine structure constant alpha may be variable. We examine a spectrum of models in which alpha is a function of a scalar field. Specifically, we consider three scenarios:…
The good match of the type Ia supernova (SNIa) Hubble Diagram to the prediction of a not-unreasonable cosmological world model shows that measurements of standard stars and their comparison with point sources down to m=25 mag is good to…
A new method for measuring gravitational lensing with high redshift type Ia supernovae is investigated. The method utilizes correlations between foreground galaxies and supernova brightnesses to substantially reduce possible systematic…
We review recent activity searching for variations in the fundamental constants of nature in quasar absorption spectra and in the laboratory. While research in this direction has been ongoing for many decades, the topic has recently been…
We present the dependences of the properties of type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) on their host galaxies by analyzing the multi-band lightcurves of 118 spectroscopically confirmed SNe Ia observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Supernova…
We examine the utility of very high redshift Type Ia supernovae for cosmology and systematic uncertainty control. Next generation space surveys such as the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP) will obtain thousands of supernovae at z>1.7,…
The focus of this review is the work that has been done during the 1990s on using Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to measure the Hubble constant ($H_0$). SNe Ia are well suited for measuring $H_0$. A straightforward maximum-light color…
Starting from astrophysical indications that the fine structure constant might undergo a small cosmological time shift, we discuss the implications of such an effect from the point of view of particle physics. Grand unification implies…