Constraining the anisotropy of the Universe via Pantheon supernovae
  sample
  We test the possible dipole anisotropy of a Finslerian cosmological model and
other three dipole-modulated cosmological models, i.e., the dipole-modulated
$\rm{\Lambda}$CDM, $w$CDM and Chevallier--Polarski--Linder (CPL) model by using
the recently released Pantheon sample of SNe Ia. The Markov chain Monte Carlo
(MCMC) method is used to explore the whole parameter space. We find that the
dipole anisotropy is very weak in all cosmological models used. Although the
dipole amplitudes of four cosmological models are consistent with zero within
$1\sigma$ uncertainty, the dipole directions are close to the axial direction
to the plane of SDSS subsample among Pantheon. It may imply that the weak
dipole anisotropy in the Pantheon sample originates from the inhomogeneous
distribution of the SDSS subsample. More homogeneous distribution of SNe Ia is
necessary to constrain the cosmic anisotropy.
