Reconciling the local void with the CMB
  In the standard cosmological model, the dimming of distant Type Ia supernovae
is explained by invoking the existence of repulsive `dark energy' which is
causing the Hubble expansion to accelerate. However this may be an artifact of
interpreting the data in an (oversimplified) homogeneous model universe. In the
simplest inhomogeneous model which fits the SNe Ia Hubble diagram without dark
energy, we are located close to the centre of a void modelled by a
Lema\'itre-Tolman-Bondi metric. It has been claimed that such models cannot fit
the CMB and other cosmological data. This is however based on the assumption of
a scale-free spectrum for the primordial density perturbation. An alternative
physically motivated form for the spectrum enables a good fit to both SNe Ia
(Constitution/Union2) and CMB (WMAP 7-yr) data, and to the locally measured
Hubble parameter. Constraints from baryon acoustic oscillations and primordial
nucleosynthesis are also satisfied.
