Related papers: Cosmological Observations: Averaging on the Null C…
The Universe is not isotropic or spatially homogeneous on local scales. The averaging of local inhomogeneities in general relativity can lead to significant dynamical effects on the evolution of the Universe, and even if the effects are at…
The gravitational field equations on cosmological scales are obtained by averaging the Einstein field equations of general relativity. By assuming spatial homogeneity and isotropy on the largest scales, the local inhomogeneities affect the…
We present a general gauge invariant formalism for defining cosmological averages that are relevant for observations based on light-like signals. Such averages involve either null hypersurfaces corresponding to a family of past light-cones…
Averaging in general relativity is a complicated operation, due to the general covariance of the theory and the non-linearity of Einstein's equations. The latter of these ensures that smoothing spacetime over cosmological scales does not…
The standard model of cosmology assumes that the Universe can be described to hover around a homogeneous-isotropic solution of Einstein's general theory of relativity. This description needs (sometimes hidden) hypotheses that restrict the…
Cosmological models typically neglect the complicated nature of the spacetime manifold at small scales in order to hypothesize idealized general relativistic solutions for describing the average dynamics of the Universe. Although these…
We discuss the effect of curvature and matter inhomogeneities on the averaged scalar curvature of the present-day Universe. Motivated by studies of averaged inhomogeneous cosmologies, we contemplate on the question whether it is sensible to…
The interpretation of cosmological observations relies on a notion of an average Universe, which is usually considered as the homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model. However, inhomogeneities may…
This article looks at how inhomogeneous spacetime models may be significant for cosmology. First it looks at how the averaging process may affect large scale dynamics, with backreaction effects leading to effective contributions to the…
It is generally assumed that on sufficiently large scales the Universe is well-described as a homogeneous, isotropic FRW cosmology with a dark energy. Does the formation of nonlinear cosmic inhomogeneities produce a significant effect on…
The first objective of this thesis is to fill the lack in cosmology of a description on the past light cone: the null hypersurface on which observed signals propagate. Its second goal is to evaluate the importance of inhomogeneities in the…
With the era of precision cosmology upon us, and upcoming surveys expected to further improve the precision of our observations below the percent level, ensuring the accuracy of our theoretical cosmological model is of the utmost…
A mildly inhomogeneous universe with a cosmological constant may look like it contains evolving dark energy. We show that could be the case by modelling the inhomogeneities and their effects in three different ways: as clumped matter…
In the macroscopic gravity approach to the averaging problem in cosmology, the Einstein field equations on cosmological scales are modified by appropriate gravitational correlation terms. We study the averaging problem within the class of…
Cosmic structures determine how light propagates through the Universe and consequently must be taken into account in the interpretation of observations. In the standard cosmological model at the largest scales, such structures are either…
The problems of coarse-graining and averaging of inhomogeneous cosmologies, and their backreaction on average cosmic evolution, are reviewed from a physical viewpoint. A particular focus is placed on comparing different notions of average…
This paper presents a general averaging procedure for a set of observers which are tilted with respect to the cosmological matter fluid. After giving the full set of equations describing the local dynamics, we define the averaging procedure…
The question of the averaging of inhomogeneous spacetimes in cosmology is important for the correct interpretation of cosmological data. In this paper we suggest a conceptually simpler approach to averaging in cosmology based on the…
If general relativity (GR) describes the expansion of the Universe, the observed cosmic acceleration implies the existence of a `dark energy'. However, while the Universe is on average homogeneous on large scales, it is inhomogeneous on…
One of the fundamental assumptions of the standard $\Lambda$CDM cosmology is that, on large scales, all the matter-energy components of the Universe share a common rest frame. This seems natural for the visible sector, that has been in…