Averaging anisotropic cosmologies

We examine the effects of spatial inhomogeneities on irrotational anisotropic cosmologies by looking at the average properties of pressure-free Bianchi-type models. Adopting the Buchert averaging scheme, we identify the kinematic backreaction effects by focussing on spacetimes with zero or isotropic spatial curvature. This allows us to close the system of the standard scalar formulae with a propagation equation for the shear magnitude. We find no change in the already known conditions for accelerated expansion. The backreaction terms are expressed as algebraic relations between the mean-square fluctuations of the models' irreducible kinematical variables. Based on these we investigate the early evolution of averaged vacuum Bianchi type I universes and those filled with pressureless matter. In the latter case we show that the backreaction effects can modify the familiar Kasner-like singularity and potentially remove Mixmaster-type oscillations. We also discuss the possibility of accelerated expansion due to backreaction effects and the constraints this might put on the anisotropy of the averaged spacetimes. Finally, we critically assess the status of these and other attempts to define and calculate `average' spacetime behaviour in general relativity.