Date Published:

September 1, 201

Abstract:

The accelerating expansion of the universe is the most surprisingcosmological discovery in many decades, implying that the universe isdominated by some form of "dark energy" with exotic physical properties,or that Einstein's theory of gravity breaks down on cosmological scales.The profound implications of cosmic acceleration have inspired ambitiousefforts to understand its origin, with experiments that aim to measurethe history of expansion and growth of structure with percent-levelprecision or higher. We review in detail the four most well establishedmethods for making such measurements: Type Ia supernovae, baryonacoustic oscillations (BAO), weak gravitational lensing, and theabundance of galaxy clusters. We pay particular attention to thesystematic uncertainties in these techniques and to strategies forcontrolling them at the level needed to exploit "Stage IV" dark energyfacilities such as BigBOSS, LSST, Euclid, and WFIRST. We briefly reviewa number of other approaches including redshift-space distortions, theAlcock-Paczynski effect, and direct measurements of the Hubble constantH₀. We present extensive forecasts for constraints on thedark energy equation of state and parameterized deviations from GeneralRelativity, achievable with Stage III and Stage IV experimental programsthat incorporate supernovae, BAO, weak lensing, and cosmic microwavebackground data. We also show the level of precision required forclusters or other methods to provide constraints competitive with thoseof these fiducial programs. We emphasize the value of a balanced programthat employs several of the most powerful methods in combination, bothto cross-check systematic uncertainties and to take advantage ofcomplementary information. Surveys to probe cosmic acceleration producedata sets that support a wide range of scientific investigations, andthey continue the longstanding astronomical tradition of mapping theuniverse in ever greater detail over ever larger scales.

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