A new magnitude--redshift relation based on Type Ia supernovae

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new empirical magnitude-redshift relation for Type Ia supernovae that outperforms standard cosmological models and is stable across different datasets and sky regions.

Contribution

The authors propose a simple, two-parameter empirical relation for supernova magnitudes that improves cosmological fits and tests for isotropy and acceleration.

Findings

The relation fits SN data up to z~1.1 with high consistency.

It outperforms ΛCDM and flat wCDM models in fitting the data.

No evidence of anisotropy was found in the parameters across different sky regions.

Abstract

We present a new empirical relation between the standardized magnitude ($m$) of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and redshift ($z$). Using Pantheon+ and DES-SN5YR, we find a negative linear correlation between $m-5\log(z(1+z))$ and $z$, implying that their magnitude--redshift relation can be parametrized with just two parameters: an intercept $\mathcal{M}$ and a slope $b$. This relation corresponds to the luminosity distance $d_L(z)=c\,H_0^{-1}z(1+z)10^{bz/5}$ and is valid up to at least $z\simeq1.1$. It outperforms the $\Lambda$CDM and flat $w$CDM models and the (2,1) Pad\'e approximant for $d_L(z)$, and performs comparably to the flat $\Lambda$CDM model and the (2,1) Pad\'e($j_0=1$) model of Hu et al. Furthermore, the relation is stable in the absence of low-$z$ SNe, making it suitable for fitting Hubble diagrams of SNe Ia without the need to add a low-$z$ sample. In deep fields in particular, assuming that the large-scale density is independent of the comoving radial coordinate, $b\propto q_0+1$. We fit the empirical relation to SN data in eight deep-field regions and find that their fitted $\mathcal{M}$ and $b$ parameters are consistent within $1.6\,\sigma$, in agreement with isotropy. The inferred $q_0$ values, ranging from $-0.6$ to $-0.4$, are consistent within $1.5\,\sigma$ and significantly lower than zero, indicating statistically consistent cosmic acceleration across all eight regions. We apply the empirical relation to the DES-Dovekie and Amalgame SN samples, finding $b$ values consistent with those from DES-SN5YR and Pantheon+. Finally, using the empirical relation in the hemispheric comparison method applied to Pantheon+ up to $z=1.1$, we find no evidence for anisotropies in $\mathcal{M}$ and $b$.