Cosmographic analysis of dark energy

TL;DR

This paper uses cosmographic methods to analyze supernova data, aiming to estimate the universe's acceleration without relying on dynamical models, and introduces visual tools for interpreting redshift-distance relations.

Contribution

It develops a purely kinematic, model-independent approach to analyze cosmic acceleration using supernova data and introduces graphical representations for easier interpretation.

Findings

Evidence suggests an accelerating universe from supernova data.

Current data does not conclusively prove acceleration without additional assumptions.

Graphical tools simplify the interpretation of redshift-distance relations.

Abstract

The Hubble relation between distance and redshift is a purely cosmographic relation that depends only on the symmetries of a FLRW spacetime, but does not intrinsically make any dynamical assumptions. This suggests that it should be possible to estimate the parameters defining the Hubble relation without making any dynamical assumptions. To test this idea, we perform a number of inter-related cosmographic fits to the legacy05 and gold06 supernova datasets, paying careful attention to the systematic uncertainties. Based on this supernova data, the "preponderance of evidence" certainly suggests an accelerating universe. However we would argue that (unless one uses additional dynamical and observational information, and makes additional theoretical assumptions) this conclusion is not currently supported "beyond reasonable doubt". As part of the analysis we develop two particularly transparent graphical representations of the redshift-distance relation -- representations in which acceleration versus deceleration reduces to the question of whether the relevant graph slopes up or down.