Reconstructing the Cosmic Equation of State from Supernova Distances

Tarun Deep Saini, Somak Raychaudhury, Varun Sahni, and A. A. Starobinsky
Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1162 – Published 7 August 2000
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Abstract

Observations of high-redshift supernovae indicate that the Universe is accelerating. Here we present a model-independent method for estimating the form of the potential V(φ) of the scalar field driving this acceleration, and the associated equation of state wφ. Our method is based on a versatile analytical form for the luminosity distance DL, optimized to fit observed distances to distant supernovae and differentiated to yield V(φ) and wφ. Our results favor wφ1 at the present epoch, steadily increasing with redshift. A cosmological constant is consistent with our results.

  • Received 12 October 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.1162

©2000 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Tarun Deep Saini1,*, Somak Raychaudhury1,†, Varun Sahni1,‡, and A. A. Starobinsky2,3,§

  • 1Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Puné 411 007, India
  • 2Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, 117334 Moscow, Russia
  • 3MPI für Astrophysik, 86740 Garching bei München, Germany

  • *Email address: saini@iucaa.ernet.in
  • Email address: somak@iucaa.ernet.in
  • Email address: varun@iucaa.ernet.in
  • §Email address: alstar@hammer.landau.ac.ru

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Issue

Vol. 85, Iss. 6 — 7 August 2000

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