From: Kyle Dawson (kdawson@lbl.gov)
Date: Fri Jan 27 2006 - 13:35:02 PST
Our Cycle 14 program has now proved a new extremely efficient approach
to obtain z>1 dust-free Type Ia supernovae, and we here propose to
capitalize on this new technique. We will collect a total sample of ~20
z>1 SNe Ia in cluster ellipticals, each of which will carry the weight
of 9 color-corrected z>1 SNe hosted by spiral galaxies. The measurement
will yield dark energy measurements that do not suffer from the major
systematic uncertainty at these redshifts, that of the extinction
correction with a prior. By targeting massive galaxy clusters at z>1,
we obtain more than five-times higher efficiency in detection of Type Ia
supernovae in elliptical galaxies, and provide a well-understood host
galaxy environment. These same deep cluster images then also yield
fundamental mass calibrations required for ongoing and future studies
which aim to measure dark energy via the evolution of cluster
abundances, as well as an entire program of cluster studies. The data
will make possible a factor of two improvement on supernova constraints
on dark energy time evolution dynamics, and much larger improvement in
systematic uncertainty, taking advantage of the uniquely well-controlled
host environment that clusters provide. They will provide both a
cluster dataset and a SN Ia data set that will be a longstanding
scientific resource.
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