Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

First Cosmology Results Using SNe Ia from the Dark Energy Survey: Analysis, Systematic Uncertainties, and Validation [First Cosmology Results Using Type IA Supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey: Analysis, Systematic Uncertainties, and Validation]

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; « less
We present the analysis underpinning the measurement of cosmological parameters from 207 spectroscopically classified SNe Ia from the first 3 years of the Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program (DES-SN), spanning a redshift range of 0.017 < z < 0.849. We combine the DES-SN sample with an external sample of 122 low-redshift (z < 0.1) SNe Ia, resulting in a "DES-SN3YR" sample of 329 SNe Ia. Our cosmological analyses are blinded: after combining our DES-SN3YR distances with constraints from the Cosmic Microwave Background, our uncertainties in the measurement of the dark energy equation-of-state parameter, w, are 0.042 (stat) and 0.059 (stat+syst) at 68% confidence. We provide a detailed systematic uncertainty budget, which has nearly equal contributions from photometric calibration, astrophysical bias corrections, and instrumental bias corrections. We also include several new sources of systematic uncertainty. While our sample is less than one-third the size of the Pantheon sample, our constraints on w are only larger by 1.4×, showing the impact of the DES-SN Ia light-curve quality. We find that the traditional stretch and color standardization parameters of the DES-SNe Ia are in agreement with earlier SN Ia samples such as Pan-STARRS1 and the Supernova Legacy Survey. However, we find smaller intrinsic scatter about the Hubble diagram (0.077 mag). Interestingly, we find no evidence for a Hubble residual step (0.007 ± 0.018 mag) as a function of host-galaxy mass for the DES subset, in 2.4σ tension with previous measurements. In conclusion, we also present novel validation methods of our sample using simulated SNe Ia inserted in DECam images and using large catalog-level simulations to test for biases in our analysis pipelines.
Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Contributing Organization:
DES Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC02-07CH11359; AC02-76SF00515; AC05-00OR22725; SC0019193
OSTI ID:
1487398
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1727377
OSTI ID: 1526592
OSTI ID: 1527092
OSTI ID: 1531226
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB--18-541-AE; arXiv:1811.02377; 1702374
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 874; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (128)

Minuit - a system for function minimization and analysis of the parameter errors and correlations journal December 1975
Marz: Manual and automatic redshifting software journal April 2016
Cosmological parameters from the comparison of peculiar velocities with predictions from the 2M++ density field journal June 2014
Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003 journal October 2003
The Supernova Legacy Survey 3-year sample: Type Ia supernovae photometric distances and cosmological constraints journal November 2010
The reddening law of type Ia supernovae: separating intrinsic variability from dust using equivalent widths journal April 2011
Photometry of supernovae in an image series: methods and application to the SuperNova Legacy Survey (SNLS) journal August 2013
Evidence of environmental dependencies of Type Ia supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by local H α journal December 2013
Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples journal August 2014
Planck 2015 results : XIII. Cosmological parameters journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : X. Diffuse component separation: Foreground maps journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second journal September 2016
Planck 2015 results : XXIII. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect-cosmic infrared background correlation journal September 2016
Photometric redshifts from evolutionary synthesis with PÉGASE: The code Z-PEG and the $z=0$ age constraint journal May 2002
The Supernova Legacy Survey: measurement of $\Omega_{\mathsf{M}}$, $\Omega_\mathsf{\Lambda}$ and w from the first year data set journal January 2006
SALT2: using distant supernovae to improve the use of type Ia supernovae as distance indicators journal February 2007
Secondary standard stars for absolute spectrophotometry journal March 1983
Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant journal September 1998
[ITAL]BVRI[/ITAL] Light Curves for 22 Type I[CLC]a[/CLC] Supernovae journal February 1999
Maps of Dust Infrared Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation Foregrounds journal June 1998
Measurements of Ω and Λ from 42 High‐Redshift Supernovae journal June 1999
Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction journal January 1999
Gemini Spectroscopy of Supernovae from the Supernova Legacy Survey: Improving High‐Redshift Supernova Selection and Classification journal December 2005
UBVRI Light Curves of 44 Type Ia Supernovae journal January 2006
The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) journal February 2006
Rates and Properties of Type Ia Supernovae as a Function of Mass and Star Formation in Their Host Galaxies journal September 2006
Observational Constraints on the Nature of Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey journal September 2007
Determining the Type, Redshift, and Age of a Supernova Spectrum journal September 2007
Supernovae in Early‐Type Galaxies: Directly Connecting Age and Metallicity with Type Ia Luminosity journal October 2008
SNANA: A Public Software Package for Supernova Analysis
  • Kessler, Richard; Bernstein, Joseph P.; Cinabro, David
  • Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 121, Issue 883 https://doi.org/10.1086/605984
journal September 2009
The Sloan Digital sky Survey-Ii Supernova Survey: Technical Summary journal December 2007
The Sloan Digital sky Survey-Ii: Photometry and Supernova ia Light Curves from the 2005 data journal November 2008
THE CARNEGIE SUPERNOVA PROJECT: FIRST PHOTOMETRY DATA RELEASE OF LOW-REDSHIFT TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE journal January 2010
Photometric Response Functions of the Sloan Digital sky Survey Imager journal March 2010
Real-Time Analysis and Selection Biases in the Supernova Legacy Survey journal July 2010
Automated Transient Identification in the dark Energy Survey journal August 2015
The dark Energy Camera journal October 2015
The Difference Imaging Pipeline for the Transient Search in the dark Energy Survey journal November 2015
IMPROVED DARK ENERGY CONSTRAINTS FROM ∼100 NEW CfA SUPERNOVA TYPE Ia LIGHT CURVES journal July 2009
HUBBLE RESIDUALS OF NEARBY TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE ARE CORRELATED WITH HOST GALAXY MASSES journal May 2010
THE EFFECT OF HOST GALAXIES ON TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE IN THE SDSS-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY journal September 2010
The blue tip of the Stellar Locus: Measuring Reddening with the Sloan Digital sky Survey journal November 2010
Snls3: Constraints on dark Energy Combining the Supernova Legacy Survey Three-Year data with Other Probes journal August 2011
Measuring Reddening with Sloan Digital sky Survey Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating sfd journal August 2011
IMPROVED CONSTRAINTS ON TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES USING MULTI-WAVELENGTH PHOTOMETRY AND THEIR CORRELATIONS WITH SUPERNOVA PROPERTIES journal October 2011
SPECTROSCOPIC PROPERTIES OF STAR-FORMING HOST GALAXIES AND TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA HUBBLE RESIDUALS IN A NEARLY UNBIASED SAMPLE journal December 2011
THE Pan-STARRS1 PHOTOMETRIC SYSTEM journal April 2012
Supernova Simulations and Strategies for the dark Energy Survey journal June 2012
THE SDSS-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY: PARAMETERIZING THE TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA RATE AS A FUNCTION OF HOST GALAXY PROPERTIES journal July 2012
HOST GALAXIES OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM THE NEARBY SUPERNOVA FACTORY journal May 2013
COSMOLOGICAL CONSTRAINTS FROM MEASUREMENTS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE DISCOVERED DURING THE FIRST 1.5 yr OF THE Pan-STARRS1 SURVEY journal October 2014
SYSTEMATIC UNCERTAINTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE COSMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST PAN-STARRS1 TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA SAMPLE journal October 2014
CONFIRMATION OF A STAR FORMATION BIAS IN TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA DISTANCES AND ITS EFFECT ON THE MEASUREMENT OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT journal March 2015
Unity: Confronting Supernova Cosmology’S Statistical and Systematic Uncertainties in a Unified Bayesian Framework journal November 2015
SUPERCAL: CROSS-CALIBRATION OF MULTIPLE PHOTOMETRIC SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE COSMOLOGICAL MEASUREMENTS WITH TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE journal December 2015
First-Year Sloan Digital sky Survey-Ii Supernova Results: Hubble Diagram and Cosmological Parameters journal October 2009
Supernova Constraints and Systematic Uncertainties from the First Three Years of the Supernova Legacy Survey journal December 2010
CfA4: LIGHT CURVES FOR 94 TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE journal May 2012
Local gravitational redshifts can bias cosmological measurements journal July 2015
The need for accurate redshifts in supernova cosmology journal January 2017
The Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey journal May 2018
The Dark Energy Survey Image Processing Pipeline journal May 2018
The host galaxies of Type Ia supernovae discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory journal December 2013
Ages of Type Ia supernovae over cosmic time journal October 2014
OzDES multifibre spectroscopy for the Dark Energy Survey: first-year operation and results journal July 2015
Cosmological parameters from the comparison of peculiar velocities with predictions from the 2M++ density field journal April 2015
Sampling the probability distribution of Type Ia Supernova lightcurve parameters in cosmological analysis journal April 2016
A blinded determination of H0 from low-redshift Type Ia supernovae, calibrated by Cepheid variables journal June 2017
OzDES multifibre spectroscopy for the Dark Energy Survey: 3-yr results and first data release journal July 2017
The Foundation Supernova Survey: motivation, design, implementation, and first data release journal December 2017
First cosmology results using Type Ia supernova from the Dark Energy Survey: simulations to correct supernova distance biases journal February 2019
First cosmology results using Type IA supernovae from the dark energy survey: effects of chromatic corrections to supernova photometry on measurements of cosmological parameters journal March 2019
Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: A Monte Carlo approach journal November 2002
Redshift distributions of galaxies in the Dark Energy Survey Science Verification shear catalogue and implications for weak lensing journal August 2016
Review of Particle Physics journal August 2018
Fully depleted, back-illuminated charge-coupled devices fabricated on high-resistivity silicon journal January 2003
The dependence of Type Ia Supernovae luminosities on their host galaxies: SN Ia host galaxies journal May 2010
Improved constraints on cosmological parameters from Type Ia supernova data: Improved constraints from SNIa journal November 2011
Monitoring the atmospheric throughput at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory with aTmCam conference July 2014
The Dark Energy Survey and operations: Year 1 conference August 2014
Characterization of DECam focal plane detectors conference August 2008
The Dark Energy Survey: Data Release 1 text January 2018
Simulations of the WFIRST Supernova Survey and Forecasts of Cosmological Constraints text January 2018
SDSS-II SUPERNOVA SURVEY: AN ANALYSIS of the LARGEST SAMPLE of TYPE IA SUPERNOVAE and CORRELATIONS with HOST-GALAXY SPECTRAL PROPERTIES text January 2016
Review of Particle Physics text January 2012
Confirmation of a Star Formation Bias in Type Ia Supernova Distances and Its Effect on the Measurement of the Hubble Constant text January 2015
Review of Particle Physics text January 2018
Host Galaxy Identification for Supernova Surveys journal November 2016
Sdss-Ii Supernova Survey: an Analysis of the Largest Sample of type ia Supernovae and Correlations with Host-Galaxy Spectral Properties journal April 2016
BAHAMAS: NEW ANALYSIS OF TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE REVEALS INCONSISTENCIES WITH STANDARD COSMOLOGY journal August 2016
LIGHT CURVES OF 213 TYPE Ia SUPERNOVAE FROM THE ESSENCE SURVEY journal May 2016
Forward Global Photometric Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey journal December 2017
Correcting Type Ia Supernova Distances for Selection Biases and Contamination in Photometrically Identified Samples journal February 2017
Measuring Dark Energy Properties with Photometrically Classified Pan-STARRS Supernovae. II. Cosmological Parameters journal April 2018
The Complete Light-curve Sample of Spectroscopically Confirmed SNe Ia from Pan-STARRS1 and Cosmological Constraints from the Combined Pantheon Sample journal May 2018
Simulations of the WFIRST Supernova Survey and Forecasts of Cosmological Constraints journal October 2018
The Dark Energy Survey: Data Release 1 journal November 2018
Measuring type ia Supernova Populations of Stretch and Color and Predicting Distance Biases journal May 2016
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Technical Summary text January 2007
Determining the Type, Redshift, and Age of a Supernova Spectrum text January 2007
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II: Photometry and Supernova Ia Light Curves from the 2005 data text January 2009
The Carnegie Supernova Project: First Photometry Data Release of Low-Redshift Type Ia Supernovae text January 2009
Hubble Residuals of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae Are Correlated with Host Galaxy Masses text January 2009
Real-time Analysis and Selection Biases in the Supernova Legacy Survey text January 2010
SNLS3: Constraints on Dark Energy Combining the Supernova Legacy Survey Three Year Data with Other Probes text January 2011
Improved Constraints on Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxy Properties using Multi-Wavelength Photometry and their Correlations with Supernova Properties text January 2011
Spectroscopic Properties of Star-Forming Host Galaxies and Type Ia Supernova Hubble Residuals in a Nearly Unbiased Sample text January 2011
Supernova Simulations and Strategies For the Dark Energy Survey text January 2011
CfA4: Light Curves for 94 Type Ia Supernovae text January 2012
Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory text January 2013
Systematic Uncertainties Associated with the Cosmological Analysis of the First Pan-STARRS1 Type Ia Supernova Sample text January 2013
The Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey text January 2014
Ages of Type Ia Supernovae Over Cosmic Time text January 2014
Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters text January 2015
Local gravitational redshifts can bias cosmological measurements text January 2015
Automated Transient Identification in the Dark Energy Survey text January 2015
UNITY: Confronting Supernova Cosmology's Statistical and Systematic Uncertainties in a Unified Bayesian Framework text January 2015
SDSS-II Supernova Survey: An Analysis of the Largest Sample of Type Ia Supernovae and Correlations with Host-Galaxy Spectral Properties text January 2016
The need for accurate redshifts in supernova cosmology text January 2016
Forward Global Photometric Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey text January 2017
The Foundation Supernova Survey: Motivation, Design, Implementation, and First Data Release text January 2017
Photometric redshifts from evolutionary synthesis with PEGASE: the code ZPEG and the z=0 age constraint text January 2002
Cosmological parameters from CMB and other data: a Monte-Carlo approach text January 2002
Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003 text January 2003
Observational Constraints on the Nature of the Dark Energy: First Cosmological Results from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey text January 2007
Correcting for the Effects of Interstellar Extinction text January 1998
Review of Particle Physics text January 2008

Cited By (17)

Observational properties of thermonuclear supernovae journal August 2019
Constraints on H 0 from WMAP and BAO Measurements journal July 2019
Strong gravitational lensing of explosive transients journal November 2019
Models and Simulations for the Photometric LSST Astronomical Time Series Classification Challenge (PLAsTiCC) journal July 2019
Significant luminosity differences of two twin Type Ia supernovae journal November 2019
First cosmological results using Type Ia supernovae from the Dark Energy Survey: measurement of the Hubble constant journal April 2019
Photometric supernovae redshift systematics requirements journal August 2019
An accelerating cosmological model from a parametrization of Hubble parameter journal October 2019
Type Ia Supernovae Are Excellent Standard Candles in the Near-infrared text January 2019
Models and simulations for the photometric lsst astronomical time series classification challenge (Plasticc) text January 2019
Steve: A Hierarchical Bayesian Model for Supernova Cosmology journal April 2019
Type Ia Supernovae Are Excellent Standard Candles in the Near-infrared journal December 2019
The Foundation Supernova Survey: Measuring Cosmological Parameters with Supernovae from a Single Telescope journal August 2019
The Foundation Supernova Survey: Measuring Cosmological Parameters with Supernovae from a Single Telescope text January 2018
Type Ia Supernovae are Excellent Standard Candles in the Near-Infrared text January 2019
Strong gravitational lensing of explosive transients text January 2019
An Accelerating Cosmological Model from a Parametrization of Hubble Parameter text January 2019


Figures / Tables (29)