Timothy Clifton, Pedro G. Ferreira, and Kate Land

Physical Review Letters 101, 131302 (2008) [4 pages] DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.131302

We show that the local redshift dependence of the luminosity distance can be used to test the Copernican principle that we are not in a central or otherwise special region of the Universe. Future surveys of type Ia supernovae that focus on a redshift range of ?0.1–0.4 will be ideally suited to observationally determine the validity of the Copernican principle on new scales, as well as probing the degree to which dark energy must be considered a necessary ingredient in the Universe.