2006/03/31 by Jason Dick, Lloyd Knox, Mike Chu · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2006/07/001
published as JCAP 0607 (2006) 001 · 13 pages, 12 figures; Version accepted for publication by JCAP; Updated with three-year WMAP data; added discussion on systematic error detection
openalex publication_date 2006/07/05 · arxiv created 2006/07/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
We present a method for reducing cosmological data to constraints on the amplitudes of modes of the dark energy density as a function of redshift. The modes are chosen so that (1) one of them has constant density and (2) the others are non-zero only if there is time-variation in the dark energy density and (3) the amplitude errors for the time-varying modes are uncorrelated with each other. We apply our method to various combinations of three-year WMAP data, baryon acoustic oscillation data, the 'Gold' supernova data set, and the Supernova Legacy Survey data set. We find no significant evidence for a time-varying dark energy density or for non-zero mean curvature. Although by some measure the limits on four of the time-varying mode amplitudes are quite tight, they are consistent with the expectation that the dark energy density does not vary on timescales shorter than a Hubble time. Since we do not expect detectable time variation in these modes, our results should be viewed as a systematic error test which the data have passed. We discuss a procedure to identify modes with maximal signal-to-noise ratio.