Dark energy and dark matter with SNAP

✍ Scribed by Eric V. Linder

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 466 KB
• Volume: 124
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0920-5632
• DOI: 10.1016/s0920-5632(03)02081-4

✦ Synopsis

The discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating opens up new frontiers for our understanding of cosmology and particle physics. The nature of the dark energy responsible is intimately tied to the high energy theory and gravitation. Measuring the properties of the accelerating universe and studying both the dark energy and the dark matter of the Universe using supernovae and weak gravitational lensing is the primary aim of the Supernova/Acceleration Probe (SNAP). SNAP can discover and follow thousands of Type Ia supernovae at redshifts .z = 0.3 -1.7. The resulting magnitude-redshift relation can determine the cosmological and dark energy parameters with high precision: the dark energy equation of state w to f0.05 and its time variation w' = dwfdz to f0.15. Wide area weak gravitational lensing studies will map the distribution of dark matter in the universe.