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We describe a general analysis package for supernova (SN) light curves, calledSNANA, that contains a simulation, a light-curve fitter, and a cosmology fitter. The software is designed with the primary goal of using SNe Ia as distance indicators for the determination of cosmological parameters, but it can also be used to study efficiencies for analyses of SN rates, estimate contamination from non-Ia SNe, and optimize future surveys. Several SN models are available within the same software architecture, allowing technical features such as K K -corrections to be consistently used among multiple models, and thus making it easier to make detailed comparisons between models. New and improved light-curve models can be easily added. The software works with arbitrary surveys and telescopes and has already been used by several collaborations, leading to more robust and easy-to-use code. This software is not intended as a final product release, but rather it is designed to undergo continual improvements from the community as more is learned about SNe. We give an overview of theSNANAcapabilities, as well as some of its limitations.

We report results from the Supernova Photometric Classification Challenge (SNPhotCC), a publicly released mix of simulated supernovae (SNe), with types (Ia, Ibc, and II) selected in proportion to their expected rates. The simulation was realized in the griz g r i z filters of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) with realistic observing conditions (sky noise, point-spread function, and atmospheric transparency) based on years of recorded conditions at the DES site. Simulations of non–Ia-type SNe are based on spectroscopically confirmed light curves that includeunpublishednon-Ia samples donated from the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP), the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II). A spectroscopically confirmed subset was provided for training. We challenged scientists to run their classification algorithms and report a type and photo- z z for each SN. Participants from 10 groups contributed 13 entries for the sample that included a host-galaxy photo- z z for each SN and nine entries for the sample that had no redshift information. Several different classification strategies resulted in similar performance, and for all entries the performance was significantly better for the training subset than for the unconfirmed sample. For the spectroscopically unconfirmed subset, the entry with the highest average figure of merit for classifying SNe Ia has an efficiency of 0.96 and an SN Ia purity of 0.79. As a public resource for the future development of photometric SN classification and photo- z z estimators, we have released updated simulations with improvements based on our experience from the SNPhotCC, added samples corresponding to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and the SDSS-II, and provided the answer keys so that developers can evaluate their own analysis.

Statistical emulators of computer simulators have proven to be useful in a variety of applications. The widely adopted model for emulator building, using a Gaussian process model with strictly positive correlation function, is computationally intractable when the number of simulator evaluations is large. We propose a new model that uses a combination of low-order regression terms and compactly supported correlation functions to recreate the desired predictive behavior of the emulator at a fraction of the computational cost. Following the usual approach of taking the correlation to be a product of correlations in each input dimension, we show how to impose restrictions on the ranges of the correlations, giving sparsity, while also allowing the ranges to trade off against one another, thereby giving good predictive performance. We illustrate the method using data from a computer simulator of photometric redshift with 20,000 simulator evaluations and 80,000 predictions.

This paper describes the data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey conducted between 2005 and 2007. Light curves, spectra, classifications, and ancillary data are presented for 10,258 variable and transient sources discovered through repeat ugriz imaging of SDSS Stripe 82, a 300 deg2 area along the celestial equator. This data release is comprised of all transient sources brighter than r 22.5 mag with no history of variability prior to 2004. Dedicated spectroscopic observations were performed on a subset of 889 transients, as well as spectra for thousands of transient host galaxies using the SDSS-III BOSS spectrographs. Photometric classifications are provided for the candidates with good multi-color light curves that were not observed spectroscopically, using host galaxy redshift information when available. From these observations, 4607 transients are either spectroscopically confirmed, or likely to be, supernovae, making this the largest sample of supernova candidates ever compiled. We present a new method for SN host-galaxy identification and derive host-galaxy properties including stellar masses, star formation rates, and the average stellar population ages from our SDSS multi-band photometry. We derive SALT2 distance moduli for a total of 1364 SN Ia with spectroscopic redshifts as well as photometric redshifts for a further 624 purely photometric SN Ia candidates. Using the spectroscopically confirmed subset of the three-year SDSS-II SN Ia sample and assuming a flat ΛCDM cosmology, we determine M = 0.315 0.093 (statistical error only) and detect a non-zero cosmological constant at 5.7 .

Gravitational lensing is a powerful tool for the study of the distribution of dark matter in the Universe. The cold-dark-matter model of the formation of large-scale structures (that is, clusters of galaxies and even larger assemblies) predicts 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 the existence of quasars gravitationally lensed by concentrations of dark matter 7 so massive that the quasar images would be split by over 7 arcsec. Numerous searches 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 for large-separation lensed quasars have, however, been unsuccessful. All of the roughly 70 lensed quasars known 12 , including the first lensed quasar discovered 13 , have smaller separations that can be explained in terms of galaxy-scale concentrations of baryonic matter. Although gravitationally lensed galaxies 14 with large separations are known, quasars are more useful cosmological probes because of the simplicity of the resulting lens systems. Here we report the discovery of a lensed quasar, SDSS J1004 + 4112, which has a maximum separation between the components of 14.62 arcsec. Such a large separation means that the lensing object must be dominated by dark matter. Our results are fully consistent with theoretical expectations 3 , 4 , 5 based on the cold-dark-matter model.

Recent results from Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), in combination with cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements, have focused renewed attention on dark energy models with a time-varying equation-of-state parameter, \\(w(z)\\). In this paper, we describe the simplest, physically motivated models of evolving dark energy that are consistent with the recent data, a broad subclass of the so-called thawing scalar field models that we dub \\(w_\\)CDM. We provide a quasi-universal, quasi-one-parameter functional fit to the scalar-field \\(w_(z)\\) that captures the behavior of these models more informatively than the standard \\(w_0w_a\\) phenomenological parametrization; their behavior is completely described by the current value of the equation-of-state parameter, \\(w_0=w(z=0)\\). Combining current data from BAO (DESI Data Release 2), the CMB (Planck and ACT), large-scale structure (DES Year-3 \\(32\\)pt), SNe Ia (DES-SN5YR), and strong lensing (TDCOSMO + SLACS), for \\(w_\\)CDM we obtain \\(w_0=-0.904_-0.033^+0.034\\), 2.9\\(\\) discrepant from the \\(\\) cold dark matter (\\(\\)CDM) model. The Bayesian evidence ratio substantially favors this \\(w_\\)CDM model over \\(\\)CDM. The data combination that yields the strongest discrepancy with \\(\\)CDM is BAO+SNe Ia, for which \\(w_0=-0.837^+0.044_-0.045\\), \\(3.6\\) discrepant from \\(\\)CDM and with a Bayesian evidence ratio strongly in favor. We find that the so-called \\(S_8\\) tension between the CMB and large-scale structure is slightly reduced in these models, while the Hubble tension is slightly increased. We forecast constraints on these models from near-future surveys (DESI-extension and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST), showing that the current best-fit \\(w_\\)CDM model will be distinguishable from \\(\\)CDM at over 9\\(\\).

This paper describes the data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey conducted between 2005 and 2007. Light curves, spectra, classifications, and ancillary data are presented for 10,258 variable and transient sources discovered through repeat ugriz imaging of SDSS Stripe 82, a 300 deg² area along the celestial equator. This data release is comprised of all transient sources brighter than r ≃ 22.5 mag with no history of variability prior to 2004. Dedicated spectroscopic observations were performed on a subset of 889 transients, as well as spectra for thousands of transient host galaxies using the SDSS-III BOSS spectrographs. Photometric classifications are provided for the candidates with good multi-color light curves that were not observed spectroscopically, using host galaxy redshift information when available. From these observations, 4607 transients are either spectroscopically confirmed, or likely to be, supernovae, making this the largest sample of supernova candidates ever compiled. We present a new method for SN host-galaxy identification and derive host-galaxy properties including stellar masses, star formation rates, and the average stellar population ages from our SDSS multi-band photometry. We derive SALT2 distance moduli for a total of 1364 SN Ia with spectroscopic redshifts as well as photometric redshifts for a further 624 purely photometric SN Ia candidates. Using the spectroscopically confirmed subset of the three-year SDSS-II SN Ia sample and assuming a flat ΛCDM cosmology, we determine ΩM  = 0.315 ± 0.093 (statistical error only) and detect a non-zero cosmological constant at 5.7σ.

A survey is presented of the current understanding of dark matter invoked by astrophysical theory and cosmology. Einstein's equivalence principle asserts that local measurements cannot distinguish a system at rest in a gravitational field from one that is in uniform acceleration in empty space. Recent test-methods for the equivalence principle are presently discussed as bases for testing of dark matter scenarios involving the long-range forces between either baryonic or nonbaryonic dark matter and ordinary matter.

The possibility that the submillisecond pulsar from supernova 1987A is composed of strange matter is theoretically discussed. It is shown that for a range of hadron parameters, the maximum rotation rate of secularly stable strange stars may exceed that of the half-millisecond pulsar and the nonrotating maximum mass is greater than 1.52 solar mass. The low-mass companion(s) to SN1987A, inferred from the periodic modulations of the optical signal, can be accounted for by stable strange-matter lump(s) ejected from the young strange star.