Complementary measures of the mass density and cosmological constant

The distance-redshift relation depends on the amount of matter of each type in the universe. Measurements at different redshifts constrain differing combinations of these matter densities and thus may be used in combination to constrain each separately. The combination of Omega(0) and Omega(Lambda) measured in supernovae at z less than or similar to 1 is almost orthogonal to the combination probed by the location of features in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy spectrum. We analyze the current combined data set In this framework, which shows that the regions preferred by the supernova and CMB measurements are compatible. We then quantify the favored region and also discuss models in which the matter density in the universe is augmented by a smooth component to give critical density. These models, by construction and in contrast, are not strongly constrained by the combination of the data sets.