Type-Ia Supernova Progenitors and Cosmology in Light of DESI
Date: October 14 to 16, 2026
Location: The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
Scientific Background:
The recent DESI cosmology results found tentative evidence for evolving dark energy, but with a troubling dependence on the SN Ia sample used. The goal of this 2.5-day workshop is to bring together experts who study SN Ia progenitors and explosion physics with people leveraging SNe Ia to constrain cosmological parameters to make headway in resolving this issue for the next generation of cosmological experiments.
Workshop Goals:
We have developed 3 “big picture” questions to define the workshop:
- What is the current status of SN Ia progenitors, and their observed correlations with environmental properties?
- What does the possibility of multiple SN Ia progenitor pathways mean for their standardization and use for cosmology?
- What data is needed to move beyond current empirical calibrations in SN Ia cosmology, and towards physics-informed bias corrections in the era of high-precision cosmology surveys like DESI, Rubin, and Roman?
Registration:
Join us for this workshop. Please register at Type-Ia Supernova Workshop. The deadline is October 1, 2026.
Call for talks and posters closes on September 14, 2026.
Invited Speakers:
Dan Scolnic (Duke)
Rick Kessler (UChicago/KICP)
Tony Piro (Carnegie)
Logan Prust (Flatiron/CCA)
Organizing Committee:
Chris Kochanek
Paul Martini
Michael Tucker
David Weinberg