Gravitational energy and cosmic acceleration

TL;DR

This paper proposes that cosmic acceleration results from gravitational energy differences rather than dark energy, introducing a new averaging scheme that aligns with key cosmological observations and resolves anomalies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme for cosmological averaging that explains cosmic acceleration without dark energy and fits multiple observational data sets.

Findings

Cosmic acceleration explained by gravitational energy differences.

New averaging scheme resolves the Sandage-de Vaucouleurs paradox.

Predicts variance in the Hubble flow below homogeneity scale.

Abstract

Cosmic acceleration is explained quantitatively, as an apparent effect due to gravitational energy differences that arise in the decoupling of bound systems from the global expansion of the universe. "Dark energy" is a misidentification of those aspects of gravitational energy which by virtue of the equivalence principle cannot be localised, namely gradients in the energy due to the expansion of space and spatial curvature variations in an inhomogeneous universe. A new scheme for cosmological averaging is proposed which solves the Sandage-de Vaucouleurs paradox. Concordance parameters fit supernovae luminosity distances, the angular scale of the sound horizon in the CMB anisotropies, and the effective comoving baryon acoustic oscillation scale seen in galaxy clustering statistics. Key observational anomalies are potentially resolved, and unique predictions made, including a quantifiable variance in the Hubble flow below the scale of apparent homogeneity.