Testing the Copernican principle by constraining spatial homogeneity

Abstract We present a new programme for placing constraints on radial inhomogeneity in a dark-energy-dominated universe. We introduce a new measure to quantify violations of the Copernican principle. Any violation of this principle would interfere with our interpretation of any dark-energy evolution. In particular, we find that current observations place reasonably tight constraints on possible late-time violations of the Copernican principle: the allowed area in the parameter space of amplitude and scale of a spherical inhomogeneity around the observer has to be reduced by a factor of 3 so as to confirm the Copernican principle. Then, by marginalizing over possible radial inhomogeneity we provide the first constraints on the cosmological constant which are free of the homogeneity prior prevalent in cosmology.