SNe Ia as a cosmological probe

TL;DR

Type Ia supernovae serve as standard candles for cosmology, helping to measure the universe's expansion and dark energy properties, but uncertainties about their progenitors and evolution effects remain.

Contribution

This paper reviews the use of SNe Ia as cosmological probes and discusses challenges related to progenitor uncertainties and potential evolution effects.

Findings

SNe Ia are effective standard candles for cosmology.

Progenitor and evolution uncertainties pose challenges.

Increasing high-redshift observations improve dark energy constraints.

Abstract

Type Ia supernovae luminosities can be corrected to render them useful as standard candles able to probe the expansion history of the universe. This technique was successful applied to discover the present acceleration of the universe. As the number of SNe Ia observed at high redshift increases and analysis techniques are perfected, people aim to use this technique to probe the equation of state of the dark energy. Nevertheless, the nature of SNe Ia progenitors remains controversial and concerns persist about possible evolution effects that may be larger and harder to characterize than the more obvious statistical uncertainties.