Reaffirmation of Cosmological Oscillations in the Scale Factor from the Pantheon Compilation of 1048 Type Ia Supernovae

TL;DR

This paper confirms the presence of damped oscillations in the universe's scale factor using the Pantheon supernova data, supporting earlier findings and suggesting a link to dark matter through a scalar field model.

Contribution

It provides robust evidence for cosmological oscillations in the scale factor using a large supernova dataset and reinforces the earlier scalar field model linking oscillations to dark matter.

Findings

Oscillations at ~7 cycles/Hubble-time confirmed in Pantheon data.

Oscillations closely match previous observations, reinforcing their reality.

Scalar field model fits well with observed dark matter density.

Abstract

We observe damped temporal oscillations in the scale factor at a dominant frequency of ~ 7 cycles/Hubble-time in the Pantheon Compilation of 1048 type Ia supernovae (SNe). The residual oscillations observed in the Pantheon data closely matches and reaffirms our initial observation of oscillations from earlier SNe data (primarily SNLS3, 2011) at 2-sigma confidence. The nearly identical shapes in amplitude, frequency, phase and damping constant makes it highly likely the signal is real. Furthermore, 2/3 of the Pantheon SNe cover different portions of the sky compared with SNLS3 strengthening this conclusion. Our model describing the oscillation, presented in an earlier paper, is a simple scalar field harmonic oscillator coupled to the LCDM Friedmann eqn, but carried into the present epoch. The scalar field energy density plays the role of the dark matter energy density in LCDM cosmology, fits well as an average, and closely matches the present dark matter density parameter, suggesting the oscillation play a role in the dark matter sector. Temporal oscillations in the scale factor and its derivative, as described in the present work, would also induce temporal oscillations of the Hubble parameter.