1109.6793 (L. Amendola et al.)

Variation of fundamental parameters and dark energy. A principal component approach    [PDF]

L. Amendola, A. C. O. Leite, C. J. A. P. Martins, N. J. Nunes, P. O. J. Pedrosa, A. Seganti

We discuss methods based on Principal Component Analysis to constrain the dark energy equation of state using a combination of Type Ia supernovae at low redshift and spectroscopic measurements of varying fundamental couplings at higher redshifts. We discuss the performance of this method when future better-quality datasets are available, focusing on two forthcoming ESO spectrographs - ESPRESSO for the VLT and CODEX for the E-ELT - which include these measurements as a key part of their science cases. These can realize the prospect of a detailed characterization of dark energy properties almost all the way up to redshift 4.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.6793