Correlated fluctuations in luminosity distance and the importance of peculiar motion in supernova surveys
- Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astro-particle Physics (ISCAP), Department of Physics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States)
- Institute for Strings, Cosmology and Astro-particle Physics (ISCAP), Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas 78249 (United States)
Large scale structure introduces two different kinds of errors in the luminosity distance estimates from standardizable candles such as supernovae Ia (SNe)--a Poissonian scatter for each SN and a coherent component due to correlated fluctuations between different SNe. Increasing the number of SNe helps reduce the first type of error but not the second. The coherent component has been largely ignored in forecasts of dark energy parameter estimation from upcoming SN surveys. For instance it is commonly thought, based on Poissonian considerations, that peculiar motion is unimportant, even for a low redshift SN survey such as the Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory; z=0.03-0.08), which provides a useful anchor for future high redshift surveys by determining the SN zero point. We show that ignoring coherent peculiar motion leads to an underestimate of the zero-point error by about a factor of 2, despite the fact that SNfactory covers almost half of the sky. More generally, there are four types of fluctuations: peculiar motion, gravitational lensing, gravitational redshift and what is akin to the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. Peculiar motion and lensing dominates at low and high redshifts, respectively. Taking into account all significant luminosity distance fluctuations due to large scale structure leads to a degradation of up to 60% in the determination of the dark energy equation of state from upcoming high redshift SN surveys, when used in conjunction with a low redshift anchor such as the SNfactory. The most relevant fluctuations are the coherent ones due to peculiar motion and the Poissonian ones due to lensing, with peculiar motion playing the dominant role. We also discuss to what extent the noise here can be viewed as a useful signal, and whether corrections can be made to reduce the degradation.
- OSTI ID:
- 20774878
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 73, Issue 12; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.73.123526; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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