Is the Cosmic Transparency Spatially Homogeneous?

Abstract

We study the constraints on the cosmic opacity using the latest BAO and Union2 SNIa data in this paper and find that the best fit values seem to indicate that an opaque universe is preferred in redshift regions $0.20-0.35$, $0.35-0.44$ and $0.60-0.73$, whereas, a transparent universe is favored in redshift regions $0.106-0.20$, $0.44-0.57$and $0.57-0.60$. However, our result is still consistent with a transparent universe at the 1$σ$ confidence level, even though the best-fit cosmic opacity oscillates between zero and some nonzero values as the redshift varies.

10 pages, 1 figure. Accepted for publication in JCAP on Sept. 26