Reaffirmation of Cosmological Oscillations in the Scale Factor from the Pantheon Compilation of 1048 Type Ia Supernovae

Abstract

We observe damped temporal oscillations in the scale factor at a dominant frequency of ~ 7 cycles/Hubble-time in the Pantheon Compilation of 1048 type Ia supernovae (SNe). The residual oscillations observed in the Pantheon data closely matches and reaffirms our initial observation of oscillations from earlier SNe data (primarily SNLS3, 2011) at 2-sigma confidence. The nearly identical shapes in amplitude, frequency, phase and damping constant makes it highly likely the signal is real. Furthermore, 2/3 of the Pantheon SNe cover different portions of the sky compared with SNLS3 strengthening this conclusion. Our model describing the oscillation, presented in an earlier paper, is a simple scalar field harmonic oscillator coupled to the LCDM Friedmann eqn, but carried into the present epoch. The scalar field energy density plays the role of the dark matter energy density in LCDM cosmology, fits well as an average, and closely matches the present dark matter density parameter, suggesting the oscillation play a role in the dark matter sector. Temporal oscillations in the scale factor and its derivative, as described in the present work, would also induce temporal oscillations of the Hubble parameter.