Constraints on large scale inhomogeneities from WMAP-5 and SDSS: confrontation with recent observations

TL;DR

This paper examines the constraints on large-scale inhomogeneities like voids and their impact on cosmological observations, challenging the standard LCDM model by analyzing WMAP-5, SDSS data, and peculiar velocity flows.

Contribution

It demonstrates that large local voids conflict with Gaussian primordial fluctuations and the LCDM model, highlighting the need for observational tests of such inhomogeneities.

Findings

Large voids are inconsistent with Gaussian fluctuations and LCDM predictions.

Observed voids and high peculiar velocities challenge the standard cosmological model.

Fitting WMAP-5 data without dark energy requires non-standard primordial power spectra.

Abstract

Measurements of the SNe Ia Hubble diagram which suggest that the universe is accelerating due to the effect of dark energy may be biased because we are located in a 200-300 Mpc underdense "void" which is expanding 20-30% faster than the average rate. With the smaller global Hubble parameter, the WMAP-5 data on cosmic microwave background anisotropies can be fitted without requiring dark energy if there is some excess power in the spectrum of primordial perturbations on 100 Mpc scales. The SDSS data on galaxy clustering can also be fitted if there is a small component of hot dark matter in the form of 0.5 eV mass neutrinos. We show however that if the primordial fluctuations are gaussian, the expected variance of the Hubble parameter and the matter density are far too small to allow such a large local void. Nevertheless many such large voids have been identified in the SDSS LRG survey in a search for the late-ISW effect due to dark energy. The observed CMB temperature decrements imply that they are nearly empty, thus these real voids too are in gross conflict with the concordance LCDM model. The recently observed high peculiar velocity flow presents another challenge for the model. Therefore whether a large local void actually exists must be tested through observations and cannot be dismissed a priori.