Dark energy and thermonuclear supernovae

Abstract

Nowadays it is widely accepted that the current Universe is dominated by dark energy and exotic matter, the so called StandardModel of Cosmoloy or _CDM model. All the available data (Thermonuclear Supernovae, Cosmic Microwave Background, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations, Large Scale Structure, etc.) are compatible with a flat Universe made by _70% of dark energy. Up to now observations agree that dark energy may be the vacuum energy (or cosmological constant) although improvements are needed to constrain further its equation of state. In this context, the còsmic destiny of the Universe is no longer linked to its geometry but to the nature of dark energy; it may be flat and expand forever or collapse. To understand the nature of dark energy is probably the most fundamental problem in physics today; it may open new roads of knowledge and led to unify gravity with the other fundamental interactions in nature. It is expected that astronomical data will continue to provide directions to theorists and experimental physicists. Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) have played a fundamental role, showing the acceleration of the expansion rate of the Universe a decade ago, and up to now they are the only astronomical observations that provide a direct evidence of the acceleration. However, in order to determine the source of the dark energy term it is mandatory to improve the precision of supernovae as distance indicators on cosmological scale.