Fundamentals of Supernova Cosmology
Robert Kirshner (Harvard)
The use of thermonuclear supernova explosions as standard candles led to the
discovery of cosmic acceleration and the search for the nature of dark
energy. How good are these standard candles? How do we understand and
model the variation in supernova properties? How does all of this fit in
with what we know about stellar evolution and cosmic enrichment? I'll
describe what we know (and don't know) about these questions and what is
being done to answer them more securely in advance of a possible JDEM
mission to measure the properties of dark energy.
