3,229 research outputs found
Almost-homogeneity of the universe in higher-order gravity
In the gravity theory, we show that if freely propagating
massless particles have an almost isotropic distribution, then the spacetime is
almost Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW). This extends the result proved
recently in general relativity (), which is applicable to the
microwave background after photon decoupling. The higher-order result is in
principle applicable to a massless species that decouples in the early
universe, such as a relic graviton background. Any future observations that
show small anisotropies in such a background would imply that the geometry of
the early universe were almost FRW.Comment: 14 pages LaTeX, no figures; to appear in General Relativity and
Gravitatio
The Stability of an Isotropic Cosmological Singularity in Higher-Order Gravity
We study the stability of the isotropic vacuum Friedmann universe in gravity
theories with higher-order curvature terms of the form
added to the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian of general relativity on approach to
an initial cosmological singularity. Earlier, we had shown that, when ,
a special isotropic vacuum solution exists which behaves like the
radiation-dominated Friedmann universe and is stable to anisotropic and small
inhomogeneous perturbations of scalar, vector and tensor type. This is
completely different to the situation that holds in general relativity, where
an isotropic initial cosmological singularity is unstable in vacuum and under a
wide range of non-vacuum conditions. We show that when , although a
special isotropic vacuum solution found by Clifton and Barrow always exists, it
is no longer stable when the initial singularity is approached. We find the
particular stability conditions under the influence of tensor, vector, and
scalar perturbations for general for both solution branches. On approach to
the initial singularity, the isotropic vacuum solution with scale factor
is found to be stable to tensor perturbations for and stable to vector perturbations for , but is
unstable as otherwise. The solution with scale factor
is not relevant to the case of an initial singularity for
and is unstable as for all for each type of perturbation.Comment: 25 page
Structure and stability of the Lukash plane-wave spacetime
We study the vacuum, plane-wave Bianchi spacetimes described by
the Lukash metric. Combining covariant with orthonormal frame techniques, we
describe these models in terms of their irreducible kinematical and geometrical
quantities. This covariant description is used to study analytically the
response of the Lukash spacetime to linear perturbations. We find that the
stability of the vacuum solution depends crucially on the background shear
anisotropy. The stronger the deviation from the Hubble expansion, the more
likely the overall linear instability of the model. Our analysis addresses
rotational, shear and Weyl curvature perturbations and identifies conditions
sufficient for the linear growth of these distortions.Comment: Revised version, references added. To appear in Class. Quantum Gra
New Isotropic and Anisotropic Sudden Singularities
We show the existence of an infinite family of finite-time singularities in
isotropically expanding universes which obey the weak, strong, and dominant
energy conditions. We show what new type of energy condition is needed to
exclude them ab initio. We also determine the conditions under which
finite-time future singularities can arise in a wide class of anisotropic
cosmological models. New types of finite-time singularity are possible which
are characterised by divergences in the time-rate of change of the
anisotropic-pressure tensor. We investigate the conditions for the formation of
finite-time singularities in a Bianchi type universe with anisotropic
pressures and construct specific examples of anisotropic sudden singularities
in these universes.Comment: Typos corrected. Published versio
Anisotropic Pressures at Ultra-stiff Singularities and the Stability of Cyclic Universes
We show that the inclusion of simple anisotropic pressures stops the
isotropic Friedmann universe being a stable attractor as an initial or final
singularity is approached when pressures can exceed the energy density. This
shows that the situation with isotropic pressures, studied earlier in the
context of cyclic and ekpyrotic cosmologies, is not generic, and Kasner-like
behaviour occurs when simple pressure anisotropies are present. We find all the
asymptotic behaviours and determine the dynamics when the anisotropic principal
pressures are proportional to the density. We expect distortions and
anisotropies to be significantly amplified through a simple cosmological bounce
in cyclic or ekpyrotic cosmologies when ultra-stiff pressures are present.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figure
Anisotropic stresses in inhomogeneous universes
Anisotropic stress contributions to the gravitational field can arise from
magnetic fields, collisionless relativistic particles, hydrodynamic shear
viscosity, gravitational waves, skew axion fields in low-energy string
cosmologies, or topological defects. We investigate the effects of such
stresses on cosmological evolution, and in particular on the dissipation of
shear anisotropy. We generalize some previous results that were given for
homogeneous anisotropic universes, by including small inhomogeneity in the
universe. This generalization is facilitated by a covariant approach. We find
that anisotropic stress dominates the evolution of shear, slowing its decay.
The effect is strongest in radiation-dominated universes, where there is slow
logarithmic decay of shear.Comment: 7 pages Revte
Bouncing Universes with Varying Constants
We investigate the behaviour of exact closed bouncing Friedmann universes in
theories with varying constants. We show that the simplest BSBM varying-alpha
theory leads to a bouncing universe. The value of alpha increases
monotonically, remaining approximately constant during most of each cycle, but
increasing significantly around each bounce. When dissipation is introduced we
show that in each new cycle the universe expands for longer and to a larger
size. We find a similar effect for closed bouncing universes in Brans-Dicke
theory, where also varies monotonically in time from cycle to cycle.
Similar behaviour occurs also in varying speed of light theories
Averaging anisotropic cosmologies
We examine the effects of spatial inhomogeneities on irrotational anisotropic
cosmologies by looking at the average properties of anisotropic pressure-free
models. Adopting the Buchert scheme, we recast the averaged scalar equations in
Bianchi-type form and close the standard system by introducing a propagation
formula for the average shear magnitude. We then investigate the evolution of
anisotropic average vacuum models 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. The
presence of nonzero average shear in our equations also allows us to examine
the constraints that a phase of backreaction-driven accelerated expansion might
put on the anisotropy of the averaged domain. We close by assessing the status
of these and other attempts to define and calculate `average' spacetime
behaviour in general relativity.Comment: revised version, to appear in CQ
Detecting a Lorentz-Violating Field in Cosmology
We consider cosmology in the Einstein-aether theory (the generally covariant
theory of gravitation coupled to a dynamical timelike Lorentz-violating vector
field) with a linear aether-Lagrangian. The 3+1 spacetime splitting approach is
used to derive covariant and gauge invariant perturbation equations which are
valid for a general class of Lagrangians. Restricting attention to the
parameter space of these theories which is consistent with local gravity
experiments, we show that there are tracking behaviors for the aether field,
both in the background cosmology and at linear perturbation level. The
primordial power-spectrum of scalar perturbations in this model is shown to be
the same that predicted by standard general relativity. However, the
power-spectrum of tensor perturbation is different from that in general
relativity, but has a smaller amplitude and so cannot be detected at present.
We also study the implications for late-time cosmology and find that the
evolution of photon and neutrino anisotropic stresses can source the aether
field perturbation during the radiation and matter dominated epochs, and as a
result the CMB and matter power spectra are modified. However these effects are
degenerate with respect to other cosmological parameters, such as neutrino
masses and the bias parameter in the observed galaxy spectrum.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures; modified version to appear in Physical Review
Constraints on Inflationary Solutions in the Presence of Shear and Bulk Viscosity
Inflationary models and their claim to solve many of the outstanding problems
in cosmology have been the subject of a great deal of debate over the last few
years. A major sticking point has been the lack of both good observational and
theoretical arguments to single out one particular model out of the many that
solve these problems. Here we examine the degree of restrictiveness on the
dynamical relationship between the cosmological scale factor and the inflation
driving self-interaction potential of a minimally coupled scalar field, imposed
by the condition that the scalar field is required to be real during a
classical regime (the reality condition). We systema\-tically look at the
effects of this constraint on many of the inflationary models found in the
literature within the FLRW framework, and also look at what happens when
physically motivated perturbations such as shear and bulk viscosity are
introduced. We find that in many cases, either the models are totally excluded
or the reality condition gives rise to constraints on the scale factor and on
the various parameters of the model.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe
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