"Dark Energy" model of accelerated universe expansion gains

From: "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]"
Subject: "Dark Energy" model of accelerated universe expansion gains support
Newsgroups: sci.astro.research
References:

Kent Paul Dolan wrote:
The support is mostly of the "eliminating alternatives
one by one" sort, but it's still of interest.

http://www.physorg.com/news152374990.html

For more details, see
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.251303
(subscription required, alas), or
http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3761

Authors:
James P. Zibin, Adam Moss, and Douglas Scott
Title:
Can We Avoid Dark Energy?
Abstract:
The idea that we live near the center of a large, nonlinear void
has attracted attention recently as an alternative to dark energy
or modified gravity. We show that an appropriate void profile can
fit both the latest cosmic microwave background and supernova
data. However, this requires either a fine-tuned primordial
spectrum or a Hubble rate so low as to rule these models out. We
also show that measurements of the radial baryon acoustic scale
can provide very strong constraints. Our results present a serious
challenge to void models of acceleration.

--
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]"
Dept of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the
powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
-- quote by Freire / poster by Oxfam