Evolutionary model uncertainties in the K-band Hubble diagram

Abstract

We explore the effects of variations in evolutionary model parameters on the K-band Hubble diagram, and compare the prediction of the older and the newer population synthesis models. The predictions of the old and the new Bruzual models differ significantly; this is tractable to a problem in combining the input stellar libraries. The new models are sensitive to a number of evolutionary parameters, and there is some coupling with the cosmological parameters. Therefore, the K-band Hubble diagram still cannot be used as a reliable cosmological tool with the state-of-the-art evolutionary population synthesis models.