Special Physics Colloquium

Measuring Dark Energy With Supernovae and Kilonovae

The next decade will be the golden age of cosmology with transients.  In this talk, I will present new analyses of Type Ia Supernovae that mark the most precise measurement of dark energy to date. I will go over how this analysis ties together with the analysis of the local value of the Hubble constant, for which tension persists with the inferred value from the CMB - an exciting hint at possible departures from the standard cosmological model.  I will then discuss the first measurements of the Hubble constant with kilonovae and gravitational waves.  I will review the large amount of overlap between the issues that must be tackled for future progress using supernovae and kilonovae to measure cosmological parameters. Finally, I will discuss the roles that surveys like LSST and WFIRST willplay and how we can harness the millions of transients discovered to make generation-defining cosmological measurements.