Related papers: Testing the Copernican principle by constraining s…
An alternative to the postulate of dark energy required to explain the accelerated expansion of the universe is to adopt an inhomogeneous cosmological model to explain the supernovae data without dark energy. We adopt a void cosmology…
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…
Astrophysical tests of the stability of fundamental couplings, such as the fine-structure constant $\alpha$, are becoming an increasingly powerful probe of new physics. Here we discuss how these measurements, combined with local atomic…
In recent years there has been growing interest in verifying the horizon-scale homogeneity of the Universe that follows from applying the Copernican Principle to the observed isotropy. This program has been stimulated by the discovery that…
Cosmological dark energy is a natural source of variation of the fine structure constant. Using a model-independent approach we show that once general assumptions about the alpha-varying interactions are made, astronomical probes of its…
We study some cosmological constraints on the two phenomenological models of oscillating dark energy. In these scenarios, the equation of state of dark energy varies periodically and may provide a way to unify the early acceleration…
Many models of quintessence predict a time variation of the fundamental constants as well as a composition-dependent gravity like long-range force mediated by the cosmon. We present bounds for the cosmon coupling to matter and radiation…
Geometry constrains but does not dictate the topology of the 3--dimensional space. In a locally spatially homogeneous and isotropic universe, however, the topology of its spatial section dictates its geometry. We show that, besides…
Cosmological constraints on a time-varying dark energy equation of state are fundamentally limited by the integral structure through which the equation of state enters cosmological observables. We rigorously derive the linear response…
A suggested solution to the dark energy problem is the void model, where accelerated expansion is replaced by Hubble-scale inhomogeneity. In these models, density perturbations grow on a radially inhomogeneous background. This large scale…
We analyze the validity of the generalized covariant entropy bound near the apparent horizon of isotropic expanding cosmological models. We encounter violations of the bound for cosmic times smaller than a threshold. By introducing an…
We study the impact of cosmic inhomogeneities on the interpretation of SNe observations. We build an inhomogeneous universe model that can confront supernova data and yet is reasonably well compatible with the Copernican Principle. Our…
We use a direct observational approach to investigate the possibility of testing the Copernican principle with data from upcoming radio surveys. In particular we illustrate the importance of measuring derivatives transverse to the past…
We find that if we live at the center of an inhomogeneity with total density contrast of roughly 0.1, dark energy is not a cosmological constant at 95% confidence level. Observational constraints on the equation of state of dark energy, w,…
Recently collected SNIa data have been used to address the problem of measuring the cosmological parameters of the universe. Analysed in the framework of homogeneous models, they have yielded, as a primary result, a strictly positive…
The equation of state characterizing the dark energy component is constrained by combining Chandra observations of the X-ray luminosity of galaxy clusters with independent measurements of the baryonic matter density and the latest…
The statistical uncertainty in measuring the primordial density perturbations on a given comoving scale is dictated by the number of independent regions of that scale that are accessible to an observer. This number varies with cosmic time…
Constraints on models of the late time acceleration of the universe assume the cosmological principle of homogeneity and isotropy on large scales. However, small scale inhomogeneities can alter observational and dynamical relations,…
Inhomogeneous universe models have been proposed as an alternative explanation for the apparent acceleration of the cosmic expansion that does not require dark energy. In the simplest class of inhomogeneous models, we live within a large,…
Using the exact Lemaitre-Bondi-Tolman solution with a non-vanishing cosmological constant $\Lambda$, we investigate how the presence of a local spherically-symmetric inhomogeneity can affect apparent cosmological observables, such as the…