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arxiv: 2601.13785 · v2 · submitted 2026-01-20 · 🌌 astro-ph.CO

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Still Accelerating: Type Ia supernova cosmology is robust to host galaxy age evolution

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classification 🌌 astro-ph.CO
keywords supernovadarkenergyevolutioncosmologydifferencehostprogenitor
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Type Ia supernovae are a cornerstone of modern cosmology, providing first evidence for cosmic acceleration and new tests of dark energy. Son et al. 2025 (S25) claim a strong redshift evolution in standardized supernova luminosities driven by supernova progenitor age, with dramatic cosmological implications: rapidly evolving dark energy, decelerating expansion, and a $9\sigma$ tension with $\Lambda$CDM. We show that the underpinning evidence required for this conclusion -- the supernova progenitor-age dependence, the redshift-dependent age difference, and their combined impact -- is either negligible or relies on effects already corrected for in modern supernova analyses. First, the S25 analysis omits the standard host-galaxy stellar mass correction that captures known environmental dependencies that also correlate with stellar age. Applying this correction to the S25 sample, we find no dependence of standardized supernova brightness on host age. Independent data also show no significant difference at low-redshift in standardized brightness between star-forming galaxies and several Gyr older quiescent galaxies of the same stellar mass. Second, the S25 scenario predicts strong redshift evolution of the host-mass effect. Data from the Dark Energy Survey supernova survey measure evolution of $-0.028 \pm 0.034~\mathrm{mag}\,z^{-1}$, consistent with zero and altering the dark-energy equation-of-state measurement ($w$) by $<$0.01 if included. Third, we demonstrate that the claimed $\sim5$~Gyr progenitor age difference between nearby and distant supernovae is overstated by factors of three to five largely due to a conflation of host galaxy age with supernova progenitor age. We conclude that type~Ia supernova cosmology remains robust for current measurements of dark energy.

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Cited by 3 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. Strong Progenitor Age Bias in Supernova Cosmology. III. Progenitor Age as the Physical Origin of the Type Ia Supernova Magnitude Steps with Host Properties

    astro-ph.GA 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Progenitor age is the primary physical driver of the host-mass and host-sSFR magnitude steps in Type Ia supernovae, with the mass step eliminated by direct age correction.

  2. Old Universe, Young SNe Ia: A Statistical Analysis of Type Ia Supernova Progenitor Age from 6,983 TITAN Host Galaxies, and Implications for Cosmology

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Large sample of SN Ia hosts shows young mean progenitor age of 3.5 Gyr and only 1.5 Gyr evolution, leading to negligible cosmological bias of 0.007 mag.

  3. Cosmological Impact of Redshift-Dependent Type Ia Supernovae Calibration

    astro-ph.CO 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    A phenomenological redshift-dependent SNIa magnitude correction shows no evidence in ΛCDM but is preferred at 4.3σ with dynamical dark energy, reducing Hubble tension to 1.5σ.