2020 Spring CCA Friday Colloquium: Saurabh Jha

Title: White Dwarf Supernovae: Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract: Observations of type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) ushered in a cosmological revolution: the expansion of the Universe is accelerating, driven by dark energy. I will describe current cosmological applications of SN Ia to measure the Hubble constant and constrain the nature of dark energy, with an emphasis on the limiting factors in these measurements. Some of these limits come from our lack of detailed understanding of the progenitors and explosion physics of SN Ia; I will review these open questions and their potential implications for current and future surveys.

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