Accelerating expansion and isotropic sky-hemisphere consistency in Pantheon+ supernovae: a revised analysis in the dark energy debate

Abstract

We perform four independent decompositions of the deceleration parameter $q_0$ using 1564 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Pantheon+ catalogue: by redshift bin, sky hemisphere, host galaxy mass, and supernova colour, correcting a coordinate error identified by Sah, Rameez & Sarkar (SRS26) in the sky-hemisphere direction used in our original analysis. Without any progenitor-age correction, the full sample yields $q_m=-0.490$, consistent with the $Λ$CDM expectation of $-0.55$. Applying the Son et al. (S25) progenitor-age correction shifts this to $q_m=-0.267$, remaining in the accelerating regime. The sky hemisphere test, using the corrected CMB dipole direction (RA$=167.80^\circ$, Dec$=-7.10^\circ$), shows consistent results between the CMB dipole ($q_m=-0.527$) and anti-dipole ($q_m=-0.464$) hemispheres, supporting isotropy but not the strong deceleration values reported previously. Our revised results are consistent with \lcdm{} and do not support either the original claim of near-zero baseline acceleration or the S25/SRS26 claim of a decelerating universe.