Paper 3, Section II, E

Cosmology | Part II, 2014

The luminosity distance to an astronomical light source is given by dL=χ/a(t)d_{L}=\chi / a(t), where a(t)a(t) is the expansion scale factor and χ\chi is the comoving distance in the universe defined by dt=a(t)dχd t=a(t) d \chi. A zero-curvature Friedmann universe containing pressure-free matter and a cosmological constant with density parameters Ωm\Omega_{m} and ΩΛ1Ωm\Omega_{\Lambda} \equiv 1-\Omega_{m}, respectively, obeys the Friedmann equation

H2=H02(Ωm0a3+ΩΛ0)H^{2}=H_{0}^{2}\left(\frac{\Omega_{m 0}}{a^{3}}+\Omega_{\Lambda 0}\right)

where H=(da/dt)/aH=(d a / d t) / a is the Hubble expansion rate of the universe and the subscript 0 denotes present-day values, with a01a_{0} \equiv 1.

If zz is the redshift, show that

dL(z)=1+zH00zdz[(1ΩΛ0)(1+z)3+ΩΛ0]1/2d_{L}(z)=\frac{1+z}{H_{0}} \int_{0}^{z} \frac{d z^{\prime}}{\left[\left(1-\Omega_{\Lambda 0}\right)\left(1+z^{\prime}\right)^{3}+\Omega_{\Lambda 0}\right]^{1 / 2}}

Find dL(z)d_{L}(z) when ΩΛ0=0\Omega_{\Lambda 0}=0 and when Ωm0=0\Omega_{m 0}=0. Roughly sketch the form of dL(z)d_{L}(z) for these two cases. What is the effect of a cosmological constant Λ\Lambda on the luminosity distance at a fixed value of zz ? Briefly describe how the relation between luminosity distance and redshift has been used to establish the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.

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