Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 131302 (2008) [4 pages]Living in a Void: Testing the Copernican Principle with Distant SupernovaeReceived 9 July 2008; revised 5 September 2008; published 26 September 2008 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 ∼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. © 2008 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.131302
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.131302
PACS:
98.80.Es, 95.36.+x, 97.60.Bw, 98.62.Py
|
|
About | Terms and Conditions | Subscriptions | Search | Help
Use of the American Physical Society websites and journals implies that the user has read and agrees to our Terms and Conditions and any applicable Subscription Agreement. Physical Review®, Physical Review Letters®, Reviews of Modern Physics®, and Physical Review Special Topics® are trademarks of the American Physical Society.