Living in a Void: Testing the Copernican Principle with Distant Supernovae

2008/07/31 by Timothy Clifton, Pedro G. Ferreira, Kate Land · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.131302

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 (2008) 131302 · 4 pages, 3 figures. Published version

openalex publication_date 2008/09/26 · arxiv created 2008/09/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We show that the local redshift dependence of the luminosity distance can be used to test the Copernican principle that we are not in a central or otherwise special region of the Universe. Future surveys of type Ia supernovae that focus on a redshift range of approximately 0.1-0.4 will be ideally suited to observationally determine the validity of the Copernican principle on new scales, as well as probing the degree to which dark energy must be considered a necessary ingredient in the Universe.

Citations

• Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae
• A Test of the Copernican Principle
• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant

Cited by

• Large-angle correlation anomalies and odd-parity preference in CMB data
• Rendering dark energy void
• Probing violation of the Copernican principle via the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect
• Copernican principle [wikipedia]