Averaging inhomogeneities in scalar-tensor cosmology

The backreaction of inhomogeneities on the cosmic dynamics is studied in the context of scalar-tensor gravity. Due to terms of indefinite sign in the non-canonical effective energy tensor of the Brans-Dicke-like scalar field, extra contributions to the cosmic acceleration can arise. Brans-Dicke and metric f(R) gravity are presented as specific examples. Certain representation problems of the formalism peculiar to these theories are pointed out.Comment: Comments and references added. 14 page

Chaplygin gas and effective description of inhomogeneous universe models in general relativity

In the framework of spatially averaged inhomogeneous cosmologies in classical general relativity, effective Einstein equations govern the dynamics of averaged scalar variables in a scale--dependent way. A particular cosmology may be characterized by a cosmic equation of state, closing the hierarchy of effective equations. In this context a natural candidate is provided by the Chaplygin gas, standing for a unified description of dark energy and dark matter. In this paper, we suppose that the inhomogeneous properties of matter and geometry obey the Chaplygin equation of state. The most extreme interpretation assumes that both dark energy and dark matter are not included as additional sources, but are both manifestations of spatial geometrical properties. This feature is an important conceptual difference in comparison with the standard approach of a Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker universe filled with dust and another fundamental field characterized by the Chaplygin equation of state. We finally discuss the consequences of the resulting scenario for effective cosmological parameters in order to establish the framework of a future confrontation with observations, and we note that the standard Chaplygin gas may not be ruled out by them.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, matches published version in CQ

LTB solutions in Newtonian gauge: from strong to weak fields

Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) solutions are used frequently to describe the collapse or expansion of spherically symmetric inhomogeneous mass distributions in the Universe. These exact solutions are obtained in the synchronous gauge where nonlinear dynamics (with respect to the FLRW background) induce large deviations from the FLRW metric. In this paper we show explicitly that this is a gauge artefact (for realistic sub-horizon inhomogeneities). We write down the nonlinear gauge transformation from synchronous to Newtonian gauge for a general LTB solution using the fact that the peculiar velocities are small. In the latter gauge we recover the solution in the form of a weakly perturbed FLRW metric that is assumed in standard cosmology. Furthermore we show how to obtain the LTB solutions directly in Newtonian gauge and illustrate how the Newtonian approximation remains valid in the nonlinear regime where cosmological perturbation theory breaks down. Finally we discuss the implications of our results for the backreaction scenario.Comment: 17 page

Cosmological Backreaction from Perturbations

We reformulate the averaged Einstein equations in a form suitable for use with Newtonian gauge linear perturbation theory and track the size of the modifications to standard Robertson-Walker evolution on the largest scales as a function of redshift for both Einstein de-Sitter and Lambda CDM cosmologies. In both cases the effective energy density arising from linear perturbations is of the order of 10^-5 the matter density, as would be expected, with an effective equation of state w ~ -1/19. Employing a modified Halofit code to extend our results to quasilinear scales, we find that, while larger, the deviations from Robertson-Walker behaviour remain of the order of 10^-5.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figures; replaced by version accepted by JCA

Apparent and average acceleration of the Universe

In this paper we consider the relation between the volume deceleration parameter obtained within the Buchert averaging scheme and the deceleration parameter derived from the supernova observation. This work was motivated by recent findings that showed that there are models which despite $\Lambda=0$ have volume deceleration parameter $q^{vol} < 0$. This opens the possibility that backreaction and averaging effects may be used as an interesting alternative explanation to the dark energy phenomenon. We have calculated $q^{vol}$ in some Lema\^itre--Tolman models. For those models which are chosen to be realistic and which fit the supernova data, we find that $q^{vol} > 0$, while those models which we have been able to find which exhibit $q^{vol} < 0$ turn out to be unrealistic. This indicates that care must be exercised in relating the deceleration parameter to observations.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; matches published versio