Yijung Kang, Young-Wook Lee, Young-Lo Kim, Chul Chung, Chang Hee Ree

The most direct and strongest evidence for the presence of dark energy is provided by the measurement of galaxy distances using type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). This result is based on the assumption that the corrected brightness of SN Ia through the empirical standardization would not evolve with look-back time. Recent studies have shown, however, that the standardized brightness of SN Ia is correlated with host morphology, host mass, and local star formation rate, suggesting a possible correlation with stellar population property. In order to understand the origin of these correlations, we have continued our spectroscopic observations to cover most of the reported nearby early-type host galaxies. From high-quality (signal-to-noise ratio ~175) spectra, we obtained the most direct and reliable estimates of population age and metallicity for these host galaxies. We find a significant correlation between SN luminosity (after the standardization) and stellar population age at a 99.5% confidence level. As such, this is the most direct and stringent test ever made for the luminosity evolution of SN Ia. Based on this result, we further show that the previously reported correlations with host morphology, host mass, and local star formation rate are most likely originated from the difference in population age. This indicates that the light-curve fitters used by the SNe Ia community are not quite capable of correcting for the population age effect, which would inevitably cause a serious systematic bias with look-back time. Notably, taken at face values, a significant fraction of the Hubble residual used in the discovery of the dark energy appears to be affected by the luminosity evolution. We argue, therefore, that this systematic bias must be considered in detail in SN cosmology before proceeding to the details of the dark energy.

Matteo Luca Ruggiero, Lorenzo Iorio

The growing availability of increasingly accurate data on transiting exoplanets suggests the possibility of using these systems as possible testbeds for modified models of gravity. In particular, we suggest that the post-Keplerian (pK) dynamical effects from the perturbations of the Newtonian potential falling off as the square or the cube of the distance from the mass of the host star break the degeneracy of the anomalistic, draconitic and sidereal periods. The latter are characteristic temporal intervals in the motion of a binary system, and all coincide in the purely Keplerian case. We work out their analytical expressions in presence of the aforementioned perturbations to yield preliminary insights on the potential of the method proposed for constraining the modified models of gravity considered. A comparison with other results existing in the literature is made.

V. De Luca, G. Franciolini, A. Riotto

We elaborate on the mass function of primordial black holes in the case in which the power spectrum of the curvature perturbation is broad. For the case of a broad and flat spectrum, we argue that such a mass function is peaked at the smallest primordial black mass which can be formed and possesses a tail decaying like $M^{-3/2}$, where $M$ is the mass of the primordial black hole.