[X] My Assistant

[ljk4-1]

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0511632

From: Pier Stefano Corasaniti [view email]

Date (v1): Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:55:34 GMT (35kb)
Date (revised v2): Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:06:25 GMT (22kb)

Testing Dark Energy with the Advanced Liquid-Mirror Probe of Asteroids, Cosmology and Astrophysics

Authors: Pier Stefano Corasaniti, Marilena LoVerde, Arlin Crotts, Chris Blake

Comments: 8 pages, 1 figure. Added extended discussion on SN Ia systematics, matches MNRAS accepted version

The Advanced Liquid-Mirror Probe of Asteroids, Cosmology and Astrophysics (ALPACA) is a proposed 8-meter liquid mirror telescope surveying 1000 square degree of the southern-hemisphere sky. It will be a remarkably simple and inexpensive telescope, that nonetheless will deliver a powerful sample of optical data for studying dark energy. The bulk of the cosmological data consists of nightly, high signal-to-noise, multiband light curves of SN Ia. At the end of the three-years run ALPACA is expected to collect 100,000 SNe Ia up to z~1. This will allow us to reduce present systematic uncertainties affecting the standard-candle relation. The survey will also provide several other datasets such as the detection of baryon acoustic oscillations in the matter power spectrum and shear weak lensing measurements. In this preliminary analysis we forecast constraints on dark energy parameters from SN Ia and baryon acoustic oscillations. The combination of these two datasets will provide competitive constraints on the dark energy parameters under minimal prior assumptions. Further studies are needed to address the accuracy of weak lensing measurements.

http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0511632