Should we doubt the cosmological constant?
File(s)1005.3655v1.pdf (232.68 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
March, MC
Starkman, GD
Trotta, R
Vaudrevange, PM
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
While Bayesian model selection is a useful tool to discriminate between competing cosmological models, it only gives a relative rather than an absolute measure of how good a model is. Bayesian doubt introduces an unknown benchmark model against which the known models are compared, thereby obtaining an absolute measure of model performance in a Bayesian framework. We apply this new methodology to the problem of the dark energy equation of state, comparing an absolute upper bound on the Bayesian evidence for a presently unknown dark energy model against a collection of known models including a flat Lambda cold dark matter (ΛCDM) scenario. We find a strong absolute upper bound to the Bayes factor B between the unknown model and ΛCDM, giving B≲ 5. The posterior probability for doubt is found to be less than 13 per cent (with a 1 per cent prior doubt) while the probability for ΛCDM rises from an initial 25 per cent to almost 70 per cent in light of the data. We conclude that ΛCDM remains a sufficient phenomenological description of currently available observations and that there is little statistical room for model improvement.
Date Issued
2011-02-01
Date Acceptance
2010-09-01
Citation
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2011, 410 (4), pp.2488-2496
ISSN
1365-2966
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
2488
End Page
2496
Journal / Book Title
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume
410
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society following peer review. The version of record M. C. March, G. D. Starkman, R. Trotta, and P. M. Vaudrevange
Should we doubt the cosmological constant?
MNRAS (2011) Vol. 410 2488-2496 is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17614.x
Should we doubt the cosmological constant?
MNRAS (2011) Vol. 410 2488-2496 is available online at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17614.x
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Astronomy & Astrophysics
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
methods: statistical
supernovae: type Ia
cosmological parameters
dark energy
MODEL SELECTION
BAYESIAN-INFERENCE
SUPERNOVA DATA
MONTE-CARLO
PARAMETERS
EFFICIENT
UNIVERSE
SKY
Publication Status
Published