An Improved Treatment of Optics in the Lindquist-Wheeler Models

Understand

We consider the optical properties of Lindquist-Wheeler (LW) models of the Universe.

• These models consist of lattices constructed from regularly arranged discrete masses.
• They are akin to the Wigner-Seitz construction of solid state physics, and result in a dynamical description of the large-scale Universe in which the global expansion is given by a Friedmann-like equation.
• We show that if these models are constructed in a particular way then the redshifts of distant objects, as well as the dynamics of the global space-time, can be made to be in good agreement with the homogeneous and isotropic Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) solutions of Einstein's equations, at the level of <3% out to z~2.