Light Propagation and Large-Scale Inhomogeneities

Abstract

We consider the effect on the propagation of light of inhomogeneities with sizes of order 10 Mpc or larger. The Universe is approximated through a variation of the Swiss-cheese model. The spherical inhomogeneities are void-like, with central underdensities surrounded by compensating overdense shells. We study the propagation of light in this background, assuming that the source and the observer occupy random positions, so that each beam travels through several inhomogeneities at random angles. The distribution of luminosity distances for sources with the same redshift is asymmetric, with a peak at a value larger than the average one. The width of the distribution and the location of the maximum increase with increasing redshift and length scale of the inhomogeneities. We compute the induced dispersion and bias on cosmological parameters derived from the supernova data. They are too small to explain the perceived acceleration without dark energy, even when the length scale of the inhomogeneities is comparable to the horizon distance. Moreover, the dispersion and bias induced by gravitational lensing at the scales of galaxies or clusters of galaxies are larger by at least an order of magnitude.

27 pages, 9 figures, revised version to appear in JCAP, analytical estimate included, typos corrected

References in corpus (9)

• Accelerated expansion from structure formation
• The effect of inhomogeneous expansion on the supernova observations
• Mimicking Dark Energy with Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi Models: Weak Central Singularities and Critical Points
• Correspondence between kinematical backreaction and scalar field cosmologies - the `morphon field'
• The supernova Hubble diagram for off-center observers in a spherically symmetric inhomogeneous universe
• Mapping Luminosity-Redshift Relationship to LTB Cosmology
• The Effect of Large-Scale Inhomogeneities on the Luminosity Distance
• Inhomogeneous spacetimes as a dark energy model
• Cosmological Acceleration and Gravitational Collapse

Cited by in corpus (64)

• Cosmological Non-Linearities as an Effective Fluid
• Inhomogeneous cosmological models: exact solutions and their applications
• Observational constraints on inhomogeneous cosmological models without dark energy
• Archipelagian Cosmology: Dynamics and Observables in a Universe with Discretized Matter Content
• Szekeres Swiss-Cheese model and supernova observations
• Local Void vs Dark Energy: Confrontation with WMAP and Type Ia Supernovae
• Interpretation of the Hubble diagram in a nonhomogeneous universe
• Constraints on large scale inhomogeneities from WMAP-5 and SDSS: confrontation with recent observations
• Cosmological background solutions and cosmological backreactions
• A new stochastic approach to cumulative weak lensing
• Reconciling the local void with the CMB
• Testing the Copernican Principle via Cosmological Observations
• Redshift Drift in LTB Void Universes
• Can all cosmological observations be accurately interpreted with a unique geometry?
• Pressure gradients, shell crossing singularities and acoustic oscillations - application to inhomogeneous cosmological models
• Swiss Cheese and a Cheesy CMB
• Observational constraints on the LLTB model
• How does the cosmic large-scale structure bias the Hubble diagram?
• Apparent and average acceleration of the Universe
• Errors in Estimating Omega_Lambda due to the Fluid Approximation
• On light propagation in Swiss-Cheese cosmologies
• Ricci focusing, shearing, and the expansion rate in an almost homogeneous Universe
• Redshift and distances in a ΛCDM cosmology with non-linear inhomogeneities
• Description of our cosmological spacetime as a perturbed conformal Newtonian metric and implications for the backreaction proposal for the accelerating universe
• Large-scale inhomogeneities may improve the cosmic concordance of supernovae
• Swiss-cheese models and the Dyer-Roeder approximation
• Light propagation and the average expansion rate in near-FRW universes
• Cosmology Without Averaging
• Hubble Diagram Dispersion From Large-Scale Structure
• LTB solutions in Newtonian gauge: from strong to weak fields
• CMB observations in LTB universes: Part I: Matching peak positions in the CMB spectrum
• Exact spherically-symmetric inhomogeneous model with n perfect fluids
• Light propagation in Swiss cheese models of random close-packed Szekeres structures: Effects of anisotropy and comparisons with perturbative results
• Weak lensing and the Dyer-Roeder approximation
• Redshift drift in axially symmetric quasi-spherical Szekeres models
• Do the observational data favor a local void?
• The effect of inhomogeneities on the distance to the last scattering surface and the accuracy of the CMB analysis
• SNe observations in a meatball universe with a local void
• Studying the precision of ray tracing techniques with Szekeres models
• Towards statistically homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universes with cosmic backreaction
• Analytical Estimate of the Effect of Spherical Inhomogeneities on Luminosity Distance and Redshift
• The Metric of the Cosmos from Luminosity and Age Data
• Ray tracing and Hubble diagrams in post-Newtonian cosmology
• Effect of inhomogeneities on high precision measurements of cosmological distances
• The theory of stochastic cosmological lensing
• Some clarifications about Lemaître-Tolman models of the Universe used to deal with the dark energy problem
• Generalized Swiss-cheese cosmologies: Mass scales
• The Lindquist-Wheeler formulation of lattice universes
• Luminosity distance in Swiss cheese cosmology with randomized voids. II. Magnification probability distributions
• The effect of pressure gradients on luminosity distance - redshift relations
• Regge calculus models of closed lattice universes
• Theoretical and numerical perspectives on cosmic distance averages
• Cosmic backreaction and the mean redshift drift from symbolic regression
• On the relationship between mean observations, spatial averages and the Dyer-Roeder approximation in Einstein-Straus models
• Luminosity distance in Swiss cheese cosmology with randomized voids and galaxy halos
• CMB seen through random Swiss Cheese
• Cosmology With A Dark Refraction Index
• Cosmology when living near the Great Attractor
• Matter in the beam: Weak lensing, substructures and the temperature of dark matter
• Light path averages in spacetimes with non-vanishing average spatial curvature
• Hubble Diagrams in Statistically Homogeneous, Anisotropic Universes
• Electrodynamics in an LTB scenario
• Inhomogeneities and cosmological expansion
• Does relativistic cosmology software handle emergent volume evolution?