Is there supernova evidence for dark energy metamorphosis?

Abstract

We reconstruct the equation of state w(z) of dark energy (DE) using a recently released data set containing 172 Type Ia supernovae (SNe) without assuming the prior w(z) ≥−1 (in contrast to previous studies). We find that DE evolves rapidly and metamorphoses from dust-like behaviour at high z (w≃ 0 at z∼ 1) to a strongly negative equation of state at present (w≲−1 at z≃ 0). DE metamorphosis appears to be a robust phenomenon which manifests for a large variety of SNe data samples provided one does not invoke the weak energy prior ρ+p≥ 0. Invoking this prior considerably weakens the rate of growth of w(z). These results demonstrate that DE with an evolving equation of state provides a compelling alternative to a cosmological constant if data are analysed in a prior-free manner and the weak energy condition is not imposed by hand.