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A phenomenological formalism is presented in which the apparent acceleration of the universe is generated by large-scale structure formation, thus eliminating the coincidence and magnitude fine-tuning problems of the Cosmological Constant…
We perform numerical simulations of large scale structure evolution in an inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) model of the Universe. We follow the gravitational collapse of a large underdense region (a void) in an otherwise flat…
The Universe may feature large-scale inhomogeneities beyond the standard paradigm, implying that statistical homogeneity and isotropy may be reached only on much larger scales than the usually assumed $\sim$100 Mpc. This means that we are…
The recent discovery of apparent cosmic acceleration has highlighted the depth of our ignorance of the fundamental properties of nature. It is commonly assumed that the explanation for acceleration must come from a new form of energy…
Supernova (SN) feedback is one of the key processes shaping the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. SNe contribute to (and in some cases may dominate) driving turbulence in the ISM and accelerating galactic winds. Modern cosmological…
Standard candles can probe the evolution of dark energy in a large redshift range. But the cosmic opacity can degrade the quality of standard candles. In this paper, we use the latest observations, including type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from…
We address some recent erroneous claim that $H_0$ observations are difficult to accommodate with LTB cosmological models, showing how to construct solutions in agreement with an arbitrary value of $H_0$ by re-writing the exact solution in…
Probes of cosmic expansion constitute the main basis for arguments to support or refute a possible apparent acceleration due to different expansion rates in the universe as described by inhomogeneous cosmological models. We present in this…
In view of interpreting the cosmological observations precisely, especially when they involve narrow light beams, it is crucial to understand how light propagates in our statistically homogeneous, clumpy, Universe. Among the various…
The Lema\'itre-Toman-Bondi (LTB) models have reported to suffer from incompatibility with cosmological observations and fine-tuning of the observer's location. Further analysis of these issues indicates that they could be resolved by models…
We present the first Hubble diagram of superluminous supernovae (SLSNe) out to a redshift of two, together with constraints on the matter density, $\Omega_{\rm M}$, and the dark energy equation-of-state parameter, $w(\equiv p/\rho)$. We…
In this paper, we propose a new method to use the strong lensing data sets to constrain a cosmological model. By taking the ratio…
Reconstructing the expansion history of the Universe from type Ia supernovae data, we fit the growth rate measurements and put model-independent constraints on some key cosmological parameters, namely, $\Omega_\mathrm{m},\gamma$, and…
I consider some of the issues we face in trying to understand dark energy. Huge fluctuations in the unknown dark energy equation of state can be hidden in distance data, so I argue that model-independent tests which signal if the…
We analyze two different algorithms for constructing weakly inhomogeneous models for the low-redshift Universe, in order to provide a tool for testing the geodesic dynamics, within the sphere of validity for the Universe acceleration. We…
We apply our tetrad-based approach for constructing spherically-symmetric solutions in general relativity to modelling a void, and compare it with the standard Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) formalism. In particular, we construct models for…
We directly compare the concordance LCDM model to the inhomogeneous matter-only alternative represented by LTB void models. To achieve a "democratic" confrontation we explore LLTB models with non-vanishing cosmological constant and perform…
We present the time drift of the cosmological redshift in a general spherically symmetric spacetime. We demonstrate that its observation would allow us to test the Copernican principle and so determine if our universe is radially…
Taking into account a torsion field gives rise to a negative pressure contribution in cosmological dynamics and then to an accelerated behaviour of Hubble fluid. The presence of torsion has the same effect of a Lambda - term. We obtain a…
There is substantial and growing observational evidence from the normalized luminosity density in the near-infrared that the local universe is under-dense on scales of several hundred Megaparsecs. We test whether our parameterization of the…