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R. Miquel (LBNL), SNAP Collaboration
We study the optimal distribution of target supernovae (SNe) in redshift z for a dedicated supernova mission like SNAP trying to constrain the dark energy equation of state parameters. The time taken by spectroscopic measurements is proportional to the sixth power of (1+z) and, therefore, limits the number of SNe that can be followed, particularly at high redshift.
Several optimizations are performed, subject to constraints on the number of type-Ia SNe exploding at a given redshift and on the total duration of the mission. Systematic uncertainties are introduced with toy models. In each of the optimizations, either the uncertainty on the value of the equation of state today, the uncertainty on its time derivative or the area of the correlation ellipse between both parameters are minimized.
The general conclusion is that in all cases a sizable number of SNe with redshift beyond about 1.4 is needed in order to achieve the maximum precision. On the other hand, the improvement is minimal when going beyond a redshift of about 1.7.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: RMiquel@lbl.gov
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.