Is there Evidence for a Hubble bubble? The Nature of Type Ia Supernova Colors and Dust in External Galaxies

May, 2007
5 pages
Published in:
  • Astrophys.J.Lett. 664 (2007) L13-L16
e-Print:
Report number:
  • SLAC-PUB-12548
Experiments:

Citations per year

20072011201520192023051015
Abstract: (arXiv)
We examine recent evidence from the luminosity-redshift relation of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) for the 3σ\sim 3 \sigma detection of a ``Hubble bubble'' -- a departure of the local value of the Hubble constant from its globally averaged value \citep{Jha:07}. By comparing the MLCS2k2 fits used in that study to the results from other light-curve fitters applied to the same data, we demonstrate that this is related to the interpretation of SN color excesses (after correction for a light-curve shape-color relation) and the presence of a color gradient across the local sample. If the slope of the linear relation (β\beta) between SN color excess and luminosity is fit empirically, then the bubble disappears. If, on the other hand, the color excess arises purely from Milky Way-like dust, then SN data clearly favors a Hubble bubble. We demonstrate that SN data give β2\beta \simeq 2, instead of the β4\beta \simeq 4 one would expect from purely Milky-Way-like dust. This suggests that either SN intrinsic colors are more complicated than can be described with a single light-curve shape parameter, or that dust around SN is unusual. Disentangling these possibilities is both a challenge and an opportunity for large-survey SN Ia cosmology.
  • COSMOLOGY OBSERVATIONS
  • SUPERNOVAE