Intrinsic uncertainty on the nature of dark energy
  We argue that there is an intrinsic noise on measurements of the equation of
state parameter $w=p/\rho$ from large-scale structure around us. The presence
of the large-scale structure leads to an ambiguity in the definition of the
background universe and thus there is a maximal precision with which we can
determine the equation of state of dark energy. To study the uncertainty due to
local structure, we model density perturbations stemming from a standard
inflationary power spectrum by means of the exact Lema\^{i}tre-Tolman-Bondi
solution of Einstein's equation, and show that the usual distribution of matter
inhomogeneities in a $\Lambda$CDM cosmology causes a variation of $w$ -- as
inferred from distance measures -- of several percent. As we observe only one
universe, or equivalently because of the cosmic variance, this uncertainty is
systematic in nature.
