Sensitivity and figures of merit for dark energy supernova surveys

Tracking the origin of the accelerating expansion of the Universe remains one of the most challenging research activities today. The final answer will depend on the precision and on the consistency of data from future surveys. The sensitivity of these surveys is related to the control of the cosmolo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2007-03, Vol.464 (3), p.837-843
Main Authors: Virey, J.-M., Ealet, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
cosmology: cosmological parameters
cosmology: observations
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Tracking the origin of the accelerating expansion of the Universe remains one of the most challenging research activities today. The final answer will depend on the precision and on the consistency of data from future surveys. The sensitivity of these surveys is related to the control of the cosmological parameters errors. We focus on supernova surveys in the light of the figure of merit defined by the Dark Energy Task Force. We estimate the impact of the level of systematic errors on the optimisation of SN surveys and emphasize their importance in deriving any sensitivity estimation. We discuss the lack of information of the DETF figure of merit to discriminate among dark energy models and compare the different representations that can help to distinguish ΛCDM from other theoretical models. We conclude that all representations should be controlled through combined analysis and consistency checks to avoid biases.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361:20066116