Supernova Cosmology Project

This project uses type 1a supernova data from [1] (milestone) and [2] (extension) to determine the present-day cosmological density parameters, $Ω_{i,0}$, appearing in the Friedmann equation:

$$𝐻^2(𝑎) = \frac{𝐻_0^2 Ω_{𝑅,0}}{𝑎^4} + \frac{𝐻_0^2 Ω_{𝑀,0}}{𝑎^3} + 𝐻_0^2 Ω_{Λ,0} − \frac{𝑘𝑐^2}{R_0 𝑎^2}$$

where $c$ is the speed of light, $H(a)$ is the Hubble parameter, $H_0$ is its present-day value (taken to be $H_0$ = 75km/s/Mpc in the milestone project), $a$ is the scale factor, defined by $𝑟(𝑡)=𝑎(𝑡) 𝑟_0$, $k$ is a constant which determines the geometry of the Universe, and $R_0$ is the curvature scale factor.

The final report, which details the background theory, methodology, results, and conclusions for the project, is also included in this repository as a pdf.

References

[1] Perlmutter, S. et al. (1999) ‘Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 high‐redshift supernovae’, The Astrophysical Journal, 517(2), pp. 565–586. doi:10.1086/307221.

[2] Suzuki, N. et al. (2012) ‘The Hubble Space Telescope Cluster Supernova Survey. V. improving the dark-energy constraints above z > 1 and building an early-type-hosted supernova sample’, The Astrophysical Journal, 746(1), p. 85. doi:10.1088/0004-637x/746/1/85.