118492857
Excursion set peaks: a self-consistent model of dark halo abundances and clustering
We describe how to extend the excursion set peaks framework so that its predictions of dark halo abundances and clustering can be compared directly with simulations. These extensions include: a halo mass definition which uses the TopHat filter in real space; the mean dependence of the critical density for collapse δc on halo mass m; and the scatter around this mean value. All three of these are motivated by the physics of triaxial rather than spherical collapse. A comparison of the resulting mass function with N-body results shows that, if one uses δc(m) and its scatter as determined from simulations, then all three are necessary ingredients for obtaining ∼10 per cent accuracy. For example, assuming a constant value of δc with no scatter, as motivated by the physics of spherical collapse, leads to many more massive haloes than seen in simulations. The same model is also in excellent agreement with N-body results for the linear halo bias, especially at the high mass end where the traditional peak-background split argument applied to the mass function fit is known to underpredict the measured bias by ∼10 per cent. In the excursion set language, our model is about walks centred on special positions (peaks) in the initial conditions – we discuss what it implies for the usual calculation in which all walks contribute to the statistics.
118443233
Backreaction of Cosmological Perturbations in Covariant Macroscopic Gravity
The problem of corrections to Einstein's equations arising from averaging of inhomogeneities (backreaction) in the cosmological context has gained considerable attention recently. We present results of analyzing cosmological perturbation theory in the framework of Zalaletdinov's fully covariant macroscopic gravity. We show that this framework can be adapted to the setting of cosmological perturbations in a manner which is free from gauge related ambiguities. We derive expressions for the backreaction which can be readily applied in any situation (not necessarily restricted to the linear perturbations considered here) where the metric can be brought to the perturbed Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker form. In particular, these expressions can be employed in toy models studying nonlinear structure formation, and possibly also in N-body simulations. Additionally, we present results of example calculations which show that the backreaction remains negligible well into the matter dominated era.
19943745
Spatial averaging limit of covariant macroscopic gravity: Scalar corrections to the cosmological equations
It is known that any explicit averaging scheme of the type essential for describing the large scale behavior of the Universe must necessarily yield corrections to the Einstein equations applied in the cosmological setting. The question of whether or not the resulting corrections to the Einstein equations are significant is still a subject of debate, partly due to possible ambiguities in the averaging schemes available. In particular, it has been argued in the literature that the effects of averaging could be gauge artifacts. We apply the formalism of Zalaletdinov's macroscopic gravity (MG), which is a fully covariant and nonperturbative averaging scheme, in an attempt to construct gauge independent corrections to the standard Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) equations. We find that whereas one cannot escape the problem of dependence on one gauge choice\char22{}which is inherent in the assumption of large scale homogeneity and isotropy\char22{}it is however possible to construct space-time scalar corrections to the standard FLRW equations. This partially removes the criticism concerning the corrections being gauge artifacts. For a particular initial choice of gauge which simplifies the formalism, we explicitly construct these scalars in terms of the underlying inhomogeneous geometry, and incidentally demonstrate that the formal structure of the corrections with this gauge choice is identical to that of analogous corrections derived by Buchert in the context of spatial averaging of scalars.
17381559
Nonlinear Structure Formation, Backreaction and Weak Gravitational Fields
There is an ongoing debate in the literature concerning the effects of averaging out inhomogeneities (“backreaction”) in cosmology. In particular, some simple models of structure formation studied in the literature seem to indicate that the backreaction can play a significant role at late times, and it has also been suggested that the standard perturbed FLRW framework is no longer a good approximation during structure formation, when the density contrast becomes nonlinear. In this work we use Zalaletdinov's covariant averaging scheme (macroscopic gravity or MG) to show that as long as the metric of the Universe can be described by the perturbed FLRW form, the corrections due to averaging remain negligibly small. Further, using a fully relativistic and reasonably generic model of pressureless spherical collapse, we show that as long as matter velocities remain small (which is true in our model), the perturbed FLRW form of the metric can be explicitly recovered. Together, these results imply that the backreaction remains small even during nonlinear structure formation, and we confirm this within the toy model with a numerical calculation.
14386518
A COVARIANT ROAD TO SPATIAL AVERAGING IN COSMOLOGY: SCALAR CORRECTIONS TO THE COSMOLOGICAL EQUATIONS
A consistent approach to cosmology requires an explicit averaging of the Einstein equations, to describe a homogeneous and isotropic geometry. Such an averaging will in general modify the Einstein equations. The averaging procedure due to Buchert has attracted considerable attention recently since it offers the tantalizing hope of explaining the phenomenon of dark energy through such corrections. This approach has been criticized, however, on the grounds that its effects may be gauge artifacts. We apply the fully covariant formalism of Zalaletdinov's macroscopic gravity and show that, after making some essential gauge choices, the cosmological equations receive space–time scalar corrections which are therefore observable in principle, and further, that the broad structure of these corrections is identical to those derived by Buchert.
18963472
Structure formation, backreaction and weak gravitational fields
There is an ongoing debate in the literature as to whether the effects of averaging out inhomogeneities ('backreaction') in cosmology can be large enough to account for the acceleration of the scale factor in the Friedmann–Lemaitre–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) models. In particular, some simple models of structure formation studied in the literature seem to indicate that this is indeed possible, and it has also been suggested that the perturbed FLRW framework is no longer a good approximation during structure formation, when the density contrast becomes non-linear. In this work we attempt to clarify the situation to some extent, using a fully relativistic model of pressureless spherical collapse. We find that whereas averaging during structure formation can lead to acceleration via a selective choice of averaging domains, the acceleration is not present when more generic domains are used for averaging. Further, we show that for most of the duration of the collapse, matter velocities remain small, and the perturbed FLRW form of the metric can be explicitly recovered, in the structure formation phase. We also discuss the fact that the magnitude of the average effects of inhomogeneities depends on the scale of averaging, and while it may not be completely negligible on intermediate scales, it is expected to remain small when averaging on suitably large scales.
5059816
Cosmological sector for localized mass and spin in 2+1 dimensional topologically massive gravity
Abstract The cosmological sector to the full non-linear topologically massive gravity (TMG) is obtained for localized sources of mass m and spin σ besides the asymptotically spinning conical flat sector previously obtained [A. Edery, M.B. Paranjape, gr-qc/9606029, to be published]. In a small region near but outside the sources, the metric resembles the spinning conical flat metric but we find that the mass m creates a negative deficit angle of 3 m as opposed to m . Furthermore, it is not possible to recover the results of pure Einstein gravity in the limit μ →∞ unlike the flat sector.