1999/01/31 by Glenn D. Starkman, Glenn Starkman, Mark Trodden +1 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.83.1510
published as Phys.Rev.Lett. 83 (1999) 1510-1513 · 4 pages;important changes in conclusion; published in Phys. Rev. Lett
openalex publication_date 1999/08/23 · arxiv created 1999/12/07 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Current observations of type-Ia supernovae provide evidence for cosmic acceleration out to a redshift of z\ensuremath\lesssim1, leading to the possibility that the universe is entering an inflationary epoch. However, inflation can take place only if vacuum energy (or other sufficiently slowly redshifting source of energy density) dominates the energy density of a region of physical radius 1/H. We argue that, for the best-fit values of \ensuremathΩ_\ensuremathΛ\phantom\rule0ex0ex=\phantom\rule0ex0ex0.8 and \ensuremathΩm\phantom\rule0ex0ex=\phantom\rule0ex0ex0.2 inferred from the supernovae data, one must confirm cosmic acceleration out to at least z\ensuremath≃1.8 to infer that our portion of the universe is inflating. If \ensuremathΩ_\ensuremathΛ<0.736 then no present-day measurement can confirm or falsify that inference.