COSMOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN A LOCAL VOID

A local void in the globally Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmolog ical model is studied The inhomogeneity is described using the Lemaitr e-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) solution with the spherically symmetric matter di stribution based on the faint galaxies number counts. We investigate t he effects this has on the measurement of the Hubble constant and the redshift-luminosity distance relation for moderately and very distant objects (z approximate to 0.1 and more). The results, while fully comp atible with cosmological observations, indicate that if we happened to live in such a void, but insisted on interpreting cosmological observ ations through the FRW model, we could get a few unexpected results. F or example, the Hubble constant measurement could give results dependi ng on the separation of the source and the observer.