Modified-Source Gravity and Cosmological Structure Formation

One way to account for the acceleration of the universe is to modify general relativity, rather than introducing dark energy. Typically, such modifications introduce new degrees of freedom. It is interesting to consider models with no new degrees of freedom, but with a modified dependence on the conventional energy-momentum tensor; the Palatini formulation of $f(R)$ theories is one example. Such theories offer an interesting testing ground for investigations of cosmological modified gravity. In this paper we study the evolution of structure in these ``modified-source gravity'' theories. In the linear regime, density perturbations exhibit scale dependent runaway growth at late times and, in particular, a mode of a given wavenumber goes nonlinear at a higher redshift than in the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. We discuss the implications of this behavior and why there are reasons to expect that the growth will be cut off in the nonlinear regime. Assuming that this holds in a full nonlinear analysis, we briefly describe how upcoming measurements may probe the differences between the modified theory and the standard $\Lambda$CDM model.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures, uses iopart styl

Gravitational instability on the brane: the role of boundary conditions

An outstanding issue in braneworld theory concerns the setting up of proper boundary conditions for the brane-bulk system. Boundary conditions (BC's) employing regulatory branes or demanding that the bulk metric be nonsingular have yet to be implemented in full generality. In this paper, we take a different route and specify boundary conditions directly on the brane thereby arriving at a local and closed system of equations (on the brane). We consider a one-parameter family of boundary conditions involving the anisotropic stress of the projection of the bulk Weyl tensor on the brane and derive an exact system of equations describing scalar cosmological perturbations on a generic braneworld with induced gravity. Depending upon our choice of boundary conditions, perturbations on the brane either grow moderately (region of stability) or rapidly (instability). In the instability region, the evolution of perturbations usually depends upon the scale: small scale perturbations grow much more rapidly than those on larger scales. This instability is caused by a peculiar gravitational interaction between dark radiation and matter on the brane. Generalizing the boundary conditions obtained by Koyama and Maartens, we find for the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati model an instability, which leads to a dramatic scale-dependence of the evolution of density perturbations in matter and dark radiation. A different set of BC's, however, leads to a more moderate and scale-independent growth of perturbations. For the mimicry braneworld, which expands like LCDM, this class of BC's can lead to an earlier epoch of structure formation.Comment: 35 pages, 9 figures, an appendix and references added, version to be published in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Perturbations of Self-Accelerated Universe

We discuss small perturbations on the self-accelerated solution of the DGP model, and argue that claims of instability of the solution that are based on linearized calculations are unwarranted because of the following: (1) Small perturbations of an empty self-accelerated background can be quantized consistently without yielding ghosts. (2) Conformal sources, such as radiation, do not give rise to instabilities either. (3) A typical non-conformal source could introduce ghosts in the linearized approximation and become unstable, however, it also invalidates the approximation itself. Such a source creates a halo of variable curvature that locally dominates over the self-accelerated background and extends over a domain in which the linearization breaks down. Perturbations that are valid outside the halo may not continue inside, as it is suggested by some non-perturbative solutions. (4) In the Euclidean continuation of the theory, with arbitrary sources, we derive certain constraints imposed by the second order equations on first order perturbations, thus restricting the linearized solutions that could be continued into the full nonlinear theory. Naive linearized solutions fail to satisfy the above constraints. (5) Finally, we clarify in detail subtleties associated with the boundary conditions and analytic properties of the Green's functions.Comment: 39 LaTex page

The Accelerated Acceleration of the Universe

We present a simple mechanism which can mimic dark energy with an equation of state w < -1 as deduced from the supernova data. We imagine that the universe is accelerating under the control of a quintessence field, which is moving up a very gently sloping potential. As a result, the potential energy and hence the acceleration increases at lower redshifts. Fitting this behavior with a dark energy model with constant w would require w<-1. In fact we find that the choice of parameters which improves the fit to the SNe mimics w = -1.4 at low redshifts. Running up the potential in fact provides the best fit to the SN data for a generic quintessence model. However, unlike models with phantoms, our model does not have negative energies or negative norm states. Future searches for supernovae at low redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.5 and at high redshifts z>1 may be a useful probe of our proposal.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure