Strong Progenitor Age Bias in Supernova Cosmology and Alignment with DESI BAO

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Authors: Chul Chung, Young-Wook Lee, Junhyuk Son, Seunghyun Park, Hyejeon Cho
Cited by: 1
References: 14

Abstract

Supernova (SN) cosmology is based on the assumption that the luminosity of type Ia SNe, after the luminosity standardization process, remains invariant with progenitor age. However, our comprehensive age measurements of SN host galaxies reveal a significant (5.5σ) correlation between standardized SN luminosity and progenitor age, which is expected to introduce a serious systematic bias with redshift in SN cosmology. After correcting for this age bias with redshift, the SN dataset aligns more closely with the recent DESI BAO result, bringing the updated ’standard candle’ (SNe) into concordance with the ’standard ruler’ (BAO). When the three cosmological probes (SNe, BAO, CMB) are combined, we find a strong (∼9σ) discordance with the ΛCDM model, suggesting a time-varying dark energy equation of state in a currently non-accelerating universe.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae Neutrino Physics Research Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Publication details

Journal / source
Universe
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
22–22
Publication date
15 January 2026
Language
EN