The local value of H0 in an inhomogeneous universe

The effects of local inhomogeneities on low redshift H-0 determinations are studied by estimating the redshift-distance relation of mock sources in N-body simulations. The results are compared to those obtained using the standard approach based on Hubble's law. The comparison shows a clear tendency for the standard approach to yield lower values of H-0 than the approach based on the scheme using light rays. The difference is, however, small. More precisely, it is found that the overall effect of inhomogeneities on the determination of H-0 is a small increase in the local estimates of about 0.3% compared to the results obtained with Hubble's law, when based on a typical distribution of supernovae in the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.1. The overall conclusion of the study is a verification of the results that have earlier been obtained by using Hubble's law: the effects of inhomogeneities on local H-0 estimates are not significant enough to make it plausible that differences in high- and low-redshift estimates of H-0 are due to small inhomogeneities within the setting of standard cosmology.