The Role of Anisotropy in the Void Models without Dark Energy

Abstract

Void models provide a possible explanation of the "accelerated expansion" of the Universe without dark energy. To make the conventional void models more realistic, we allow the void, an underdense region around us, to be anisotropic and consider an average of the distance-redshift relations over the solid angle subtended at the observer. We first show that after taking the average of a form of the optical scalar equation (distance equation), the effective distance equation we obtain coincides with the one for the Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi universe with a Dyer-Roeder-like extension. We then numerically solve the equation to compare with observational data of Type Ia supernovae. We find that anisotropy allows smaller size of void and larger Omega_m.