Sullivan

Dark Energy Constraints from the Supernova Legacy Survey
Mark Sullivan (University of Oxford)

The CFHT Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS) is a 2003-2008 program using 400-500 high-redshift (0.2<1.0) Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) to constrain the average equation-of-state parameter of dark energy, w. I will present results from the first three years of the survey, including the latest analyses of the cosmological constraints derived from around 300 SNe Ia combined with recent WMAP5 measurements. I'll also discuss the handling of experimental systematics in the analysis as well as tests for astrophysical systematics enabled by the SNLS dataset, such as evolution in SN Ia properties. Finally, I'll briefly discuss the prospects for SN Ia cosmology surveys planned over the next 5 years in the context of science learned from SNLS.