2014/01/01 by Jeremy Mould, Syed A. Uddin · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Chandrasekhar limit #Cosmic distance ladder #Cosmology #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark energy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Limiting #Redshift #Supernova #Variation (astronomy) #astro-ph.CO
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/pasa.2014.9
to appear in PASA
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · arxiv created 2014/02/25 · arxiv updated 2015/06/18 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract Astrophysical cosmology constrains the variation of Newton’s Constant in a manner complementary to laboratory experiments, such as the celebrated lunar laser ranging campaign. Supernova cosmology is an example of the former and has attained campaign status, following planning by a Dark Energy Task Force in 2005. In this paper, we employ the full SNIa data set to the end of 2013 to set a limit on G variation. In our approach, we adopt the standard candle delineation of the redshift distance relation. We set an upper limit on its rate of change |G/G| of 0.1 parts per billion per year over 9 Gyrs. By contrast, lunar laser ranging tests variation of G over the last few decades. Conversely, one may adopt the laboratory result as a prior and constrain the effect of variable G in dark energy equation of state experiments to δ w < 0.02. We also examine the parameterisation G ~ 1 + z . Its short expansion age conflicts with the measured values of the expansion rate and the density in a flat Universe. In conclusion, supernova cosmology complements other experiments in limiting G variation. An important caveat is that it rests on the assumption that the same mass of 56 Ni is burned to create the standard candle regardless of redshift. These two quantities, f and G , where f is the Chandrasekhar mass fraction burned, are degenerate. Constraining f variation alone requires more understanding of the SNIa mechanism.