Unbiased constraints on the clumpiness of the Universe from standard candles

2015/04/24 by Zhengxiang Li, Xuheng Ding, Zong-Hong Zhu +1 · 7 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Cosmic distance ladder #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Deceleration parameter #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Hubble's law #Luminosity distance #Metric expansion of space #Omega #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Redshift #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Supernova #Type (biology) #Universe #astro-ph.CO #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.91.083010

published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 91(8) (American Physical Society) · 20 pages, 5 figures, and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D

openalex publication_date 2015/04/24 · arxiv created 2015/04/27 · arxiv updated 2015/04/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We perform unbiased tests for the clumpiness of the Universe by confronting the Zel'dovich-Kantowski-Dyer-Roeder luminosity distance, which describes the effect of local inhomogeneities on the propagation of light with the observational one estimated from measurements of standard candles, i.e., type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Methodologically, we first determine the light-curve fitting parameters which account for distance estimation in SNe Ia observations and the luminosity/energy relations which are responsible for distance estimation of GRBs in the global fit to reconstruct the Hubble diagrams in the context of a clumpy Universe. Subsequently, these Hubble diagrams allow us to achieve unbiased constraints on the matter density parameter \mathrm\ensuremathΩ_m, as well as the clumpiness parameter \ensuremathη which quantifies the fraction of homogeneously distributed matter within a given light cone. At a 1\ensuremathσ confidence level, the constraints are \mathrm\ensuremathΩ_m=0.34\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.02 and \ensuremathη=1.00_\ensuremath-0.02^+0.00 from the joint analysis. The results suggest that the Universe full of Friedman-Lema\^\itre-Robertson-Walker fluid is favored by observations of standard candles with very high statistical significance. On the other hand, they may also indicate that the Zel'dovich-Kantowski-Dyer-Roeder approximation is a sufficiently accurate form to describe the effects of local homogeneity on the expanding Universe.

Citations

• Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae
• SUPERNOVA CONSTRAINTS AND SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES FROM THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF THE SUPERNOVA LEGACY SURVEY
• Distances in inhomogeneous quintessence cosmology
• The Hubble diagram extended to z ≫1: the gamma-ray properties of gamma-ray bursts confirm the Λ cold dark matter model
• Apparent Magnitudes in an Inhomogeneous Universe: The Global Viewpoint
• Time Drift of Cosmological Redshifts as a Test of the Copernican Principle
• Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant
• Constraints on linear negative potentials in quintessence and phantom models from recent supernova data
• The Dyer-Roeder relation in a universe with particle production
• THEHUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPECLUSTER SUPERNOVA SURVEY. V. IMPROVING THE DARK-ENERGY CONSTRAINTS ABOVEz> 1 AND BUILDING AN EARLY-TYPE-HOSTED SUPERNOVA SAMPLE
• The updated luminosity correlations of gamma-ray bursts and cosmological implications
• The statistics of gravitational lenses in a clumpy Universe

Cited by

• Modified gravitational waves across galaxies from macroscopic gravity
• Model-independent distance calibration of high-redshift gamma-ray bursts and constrain on the ΛCDM model
• Evolutions and Calibrations of Long Gamma-Ray-burst Luminosity Correlations Revisited