Related papers: SNe observations in a meatball universe with a loc…
We study the distances and gravitational lensing in spherically symmetric inhomogeneous cosmological models consisting of inner and outer homogeneous regions which are connected by a single shell or double shells at the redshift $z_1 \sim…
The Universe is inhomogeneous, and yet it seems to be incredibly well-characterised by a homogeneous relativistic model. One of the current challenges is to accurately characterise the properties of such a model. In this paper we explore…
How does inhomogeneity affect our interpretation of cosmological observations? It has long been wondered to what extent the observable properties of an inhomogeneous universe differ from those of a corresponding…
A fundamental presupposition of modern cosmology is the Copernican Principle; that we are not in a central, or otherwise special region of the Universe. Studies of Type Ia supernovae, together with the Copernican Principle, have led to the…
A local void in the globally Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological model with the critical density ($\Omega_{0}=1$) is studied. The inhomogeneity is described using a Lema\^{\i}tre-Tolman-Bondi solution for a spherically symmetric…
As an alternative to dark energy it has been suggested that we may be at the center of an inhomogeneous isotropic universe described by a Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) solution of Einstein's field equations. In order to test such an…
I briefly outline a new physical interpretation to the average cosmological parameters for an inhomogeneous universe with backreaction. The variance in local geometry and gravitational energy between ideal isotropic observers in bound…
This thesis concerns the compatibility of inhomogeneous cosmologies with our present understanding of the universe. It is a problem of some interest to find the class of all relativistic cosmological models which are capable of providing a…
Since its decovery during the late 90's, the dimming of distant SN Ia apparent luminosity has been mostly ascribed to the influence of a mysterious dark energy component. Formulated in a Friedmannian cosmological modelling framework based…
We construct the Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) dust universe whose distance-redshift relation is equivalent to that in the concordance $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological model. In our model, the density distribution and…
Observations of distances to Type-Ia supernovae can be explained by cosmological models that include either a gigaparsec-scale void, or a cosmic flow, without the need for Dark Energy. Instead of invoking dark energy, these inhomogeneous…
I describe a new approach (developed in collaboration with D.E. Holz) to calculating the statistical distributions for magnification, shear, and rotation of images of cosmological sources due to gravitational lensing by mass inhomogeneities…
We investigate the effect of small scale inhomogeneities on standard candle observations, such as type Ia supernovae (SNe) observations. Existence of the small scale inhomogeneities may cause a tension between SNe observations and other…
The unexpected dimness of Type Ia supernovae (SNe), apparently due to accelerated expansion driven by some form of dark energy or modified gravity, has led to attempts to explain the observations using only general relativity with baryonic…
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…
We present a simple mechanism which can mimic dark energy with an equation of state w < -1 as deduced from the supernova data. We imagine that the universe is accelerating under the control of a quintessence field, which is moving up a very…
The aim of this paper is to check if the models with realistic inhomogeneous matter distribution and without cosmological constant can explain the dimming of the supernovae in such a way that it can be interpreted as an acceleration of the…
The universe with adiabatic matter creation is considered. It is thought that the negative pressure caused by matter creation can play the role of a dark energy component, and drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. Using the Type…
First, we consider galaxy formation from the viewpoint of hierarchical clustering theory and discuss the possibility that inhomogeneous models with a local void may be compatible with the observed homogeneity of galactic distributions found…
Observational cosmology provides us with a large number of high precision data which are used to derive models trying to reproduce ``on the mean'' our observable patch of the Universe. Most of these attempts are achieved in the framework of…