The averaging problem in cosmology is of considerable importance for the correct interpretation of cosmological data. A rigorous mathematical definition of averaging in a cosmological model is necessary. In general, a spacetime is completely characterized by its scalar curvature invariants, and this suggests a particular spacetime averaging scheme based entirely on scalars. We clearly identify the problems of averaging in a cosmological model. We then present a precise definition of a cosmological model, and based upon this definition, we propose an averaging scheme in terms of scalar curvature invariants. This scheme is illustrated in a simple static spherically symmetric perfect fluid cosmological spacetime, where the averaging scales are clearly identified.
The averaging problem in cosmology is of considerable importance for the correct interpretation of cosmological data. We review cosmological observations and discuss some of the issues regarding averaging. We present a precise definition of a cosmological model and a rigorous mathematical definition of averaging, based entirely in terms of scalar invariants.
In this paper, we give a possible solution to the cosmological constant problem. It is shown hat the traditional approach, based on volume weighting of probabilities, leads to an incoherent onclusion: the probability that a randomly chosen observer measures $Λ=0$ is exactly equal to 1. Using an alternative, volume averaging measure, instead of volume weighting can explain why the osmological constant is non-zero.
We use cosmological perturbation theory to study the backreaction effects of a self-consistent and well-defined cosmological averaging on the dynamics and the evolution of the Universe. Working with a perturbed Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker Einstein-de Sitter cosmological solution in a comoving volume-preserving gauge, we compute the expressions for the expansion scalar and deceleration parameter to second order, which we use to characterize the backreaction. We find that the fractional shift in the Hubble parameter with respect to the input background cosmological model is Delta~10^{-5},…
The universe is not isotropic or spatially homogeneous on local scales. The averaging of local inhomogeneities in general relativity can lead to significant dynamical effects on the evolution of the universe and on the interpretation of cosmological data. In particular, all deductions about cosmology are based on light paths; averaging can have an important effect on photon propagation and hence cosmological observations. It would be desirable to describe the physical effects of averaging in terms of observational quantities and focussing on the behaviour of light. Data (e.g., matter terms, su…
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.
We prove the existence of a large class of one-parameter families of cosmological solutions to the Einstein-Euler equations that have a Newtonian limit. This class includes solutions that represent a finite, but otherwise arbitrary, number of compact fluid bodies. These solutions provide exact cosmological models that admit Newtonian limits but, are not, either implicitly or explicitly, averaged.
With the help of an applied software package written by the authors, we have averaged the effective total barotropic coefficient $κ=(-λ+ p)/(λ+ε$) of the classical scalar field and the cosmological term and have shown that during cosmological evolution for sufficiently large values of the cosmological constant the Universe transitions from the inflationary stage to a nonrelativistic stage, and then, after a plateau, it transitions to a later inflationary stage.
We present a new approach for averaging in general relativity and cosmology. After a short review of the theory originally taken from the equivalence problem, we consider two ways how to deal with averaging based on Cartan scalars. We apply the theory for two different LTB models. In the first one, correlation term behaves as a positive cosmological constant, in the second example leading correlation term behaves like spatial curvature. We also show nontriviality of averaging for linearized monochromatic gravitational wave.
The gravitational field equations on cosmological scales are obtained by averaging the Einstein field equations of general relativity. By assuming spatial homogeneity and isotropy on the largest scales, the local inhomogeneities affect the dynamics though correction (backreaction) terms, which can lead to behaviour qualitatively and quantitatively different from the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker models. The effects of averaging on cosmological observations are discussed. It is argued that, based on estimates from observational data, the backreaction (and, in particular, the averaged spat…
We introduce a generalization of the 4-dimensional averaging window function of Gasperini, Marozzi and Veneziano (2010) that may prove useful for a number of applications. The covariant nature of spatial scalar averaging schemes to address the averaging problem in relativistic cosmology is an important property that is implied by construction, but usually remains implicit. We employ here the approach of Gasperini et al. for two reasons. First, the formalism and its generalization presented here are manifestly covariant. Second, the formalism is convenient for disentangling the dependencies on …
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 ma…
We introduce a weighed scalar average formalism ("q-average") for the study of the theoretical properties and the dynamics of spherically symmetric Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) dust models models. The "q-scalars" that emerge by applying the q-averages to the density, Hubble expansion and spatial curvature (which are common to FLRW models) are directly expressible in terms of curvature and kinematic invariants and identically satisfy FLRW evolution laws without the back-reaction terms that characterize Buchert's average. The local and non-local fluctuations and perturbations with respect to the …
We discuss several issues related to a recent proposal for defining classical spatial averages to be used in the so-called cosmological backreaction problem. In the large averaging-volume limit all gauge dependence disappears and different averages can be univocally characterized by the observers associated with different scalar fields. The relation between such averaging procedure and the standard one is emphasized and a gauge invariant way to select different observers is presented. For finite averaging volumes we show that, within our proposal, a residual gauge dependence is left, but is su…
Structure occurs over a vast range of scales in the universe. Our large-scale cosmological models are coarse-grained representations of what exists, which have much less structure than there really is. An important problem for cosmology is determining the influence the small-scale structure in the universe has on its large-scale dynamics and observations. Is there a significant, general relativistic, backreaction effect from averaging over structure? One issue is whether the process of smoothing over structure can contribute to an acceleration term and so alter the apparent value of the cosmol…
We present two new covariant and general prescriptions for averaging scalar observables on spatial regions typical of the observed sources and intersecting the past light-cone of a given observer. One of these prescriptions is adapted to sources exactly located on a given space-like hypersurface, the other applies instead to situations where the physical location of the sources is characterized by the experimental "spread" of a given observational variable. The geometrical and physical differences between the two procedures are illustrated by computing the averaged energy flux received by dist…
Cosmological density fields are assumed to be translational and rotational invariant, avoiding any special point or direction, thus satisfying the Copernican Principle. A spatially inhomogeneous matter distribution can be compatible with the Copernican Principle but not with the stronger version of it, the Cosmological Principle which requires the additional hypothesis of spatial homogeneity. We establish criteria for testing that a given density field, in a finite sample at low redshifts, is statistically and/or spatially homogeneous. The basic question to be considered is whether a distribut…
The basic concepts and hypotheses of Newtonian Cosmology necessary for a consistent treatment of the averaged cosmological dynamics are formulated and discussed in details. The space-time, space, time and ensemble averages for the cosmological fluid fields are defined and analyzed with a special attention paid to their analytic properties. It is shown that all averaging procedures require an arrangement for a standard measurement device with the same measurement time interval and the same space region determined by the measurement device resolution to be prescribed to each position and each mo…
We construct cosmological models consisting of large numbers of identical, regularly spaced masses. These models do not rely on any averaging procedures, or on the existence of a global Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background. They are solutions of Einstein's equations up to higher order corrections in a perturbative expansion, and have large-scale dynamics that are well modelled by the Friedmann equation. We find that the existence of arbitrarily large density contrasts does not change either the magnitude or scale of the background expansion, at least when masses are regularly arranged, …
We examine the implementation of Buchert's and Green & Wald's averaging formalisms in exact spherically symmetric and plane symmetric dust-filled cosmological models. We find that, given a cosmological space-time, Buchert's averaging scheme gives a faithful way of interpreting the large-scale expansion of space, and explicit terms that precisely quantify deviations from the behaviour expected from the Friedmann equations of homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models. The Green & Wald formalism, on the other hand, does not appear to yield any information about the large-scale properties of a…
The Averaging problem in general relativity and cosmology is discussed. The approach of macroscopic gravity to resolve the problem is presented. An exact cosmological solution to the equations of macroscopic gravity is given and its properties are discussed. Contents: 1. Introduction to General Relativity 2. General Relativity -> Relativistic Cosmology 3. Introduction to Relativistic Cosmology 4. Relativistic Cosmology -> Mathematical Cosmology 5. Averaging Problem in Relativistic Cosmology 6. History of the Averaging Problem 7. Averaging and FLRW Cosmologies 8. Averaging Problem in General Re…
Perturbative gravity in global de Sitter space is subject to so-called linearization stability constraints: If they are to couple consistently to the gravitational field, quantum states must be invariant under the de Sitter isometries. While standard Fock spaces contain no de Sitter-invariant states apart from (possibly) the vacuum, a full Hilbert space of de Sitter-invariant quantum states can be constructed via group averaging techiniques. We re-examine the simple toy model of de Sitter group averaging given by the free 1+1 scalar field, expanding on an earlier analysis by Higuchi. Our purpo…
We introduce quasi--local (QL) scalar variables in spherically symmetric LTB models. If the QL scalars are defined as functionals, they become weighed averages that generalize the standard proper volume averages on space slices orthogonal to the 4-velocity. We examine the connection between QL functions and functionals and the "back-reaction" term $Q$ in the context of Buchert's scalar averaging formalism. With the help of the QL scalars we provide rigorous proof that back--reaction is positive for (i) all LTB models with negative and asymptotically negative spatial curvature, and (ii) models …
Using the spherically symmetric inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi dust solution, we study how the shear and the backreaction depend on the sharpness of the spatial transition between voids and walls and on the size of the voids. The voids considered here are regions with matter density Omega ~ 0 and expansion rate Ht ~ 1, while the walls are regions with matter density Omega ~ 1 and expansion rate Ht ~ 2/3. The results indicate that both the volume-average shear and the variance of the expansion rate grow proportional to the sharpness of the transition and diverge in the limit of a step func…
We study the effect of shear on the cosmological backreaction in the context of matching voids and walls together using the exact inhomogeneous Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi solution. Generalizing JCAP 1010 (2010) 021, we allow the size of the voids to be arbitrary and the densities of the voids and walls to vary in the range 0 < Omega_v < Omega_w < 1. We derive the exact analytic result for the backreaction and consider its series expansion in powers of the ratio of the void size to the horizon size, r_0/t_0. In addition, we deduce a very simple fitting formula for the backreaction with error less th…
We investigate the effect of averaging inhomogeneities on expansion and large-scale structure growth observables using the exact and covariant framework of Macroscopic Gravity (MG). It is well-known that applying the Einstein's equations and spatial averaging do not commute and lead to the averaging problem. For the MG formalism applied to the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric, this gives an extra dynamical term encapsulated as an averaging density parameter denoted $Ω_A$. An exact isotropic cosmological solution of MG for the flat FLRW metric is already known in the literature…
We calculate a general effective stress-energy tensor induced by cosmological inhomogeneity in effective theories of gravity where the action is Taylor-expandable in the Riemann tensor and covariant derivatives of the Riemann tensor. This is of interest as an effective fluid that might provide an alternative to the cosmological constant, but it also applies to gravitational waves. We use an adaptation of Green and Wald's weak-averaging framework, which averages over perturbations in the field equation where the perturbation length scales are small compared to the averaging scale. In this adapt…
One of the outstanding problems in general relativistic cosmology is that of the averaging. That is, how the lumpy universe that we observe at small scales averages out to a smooth Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model. The root of the problem is that averaging does not commute with the Einstein equations that govern the dynamics of the model. This leads to the well-know question of backreaction in cosmology. In this work, we approach the problem using the covariant framework of Macroscopic Gravity (MG). We use its cosmological solution with a flat FLRW macroscopic background where …
Cosmological solutions of Einstein's equations for equilibrium statistical systems of particles with scalar interaction are investigated. It is shown that the scalar field can effectively change the state equation of a statistical system, that leads to the possibility of secondary acceleration of the cosmological expansion.
The background dynamical evolution of a universe filled with matter and a cosmological scalar field is analyzed employing dynamical system techniques. After the phenomenology of a canonical scalar field with exponential potential is revised, square and square root kinetic corrections to the scalar field canonical Lagrangian are considered and the resulting dynamics at cosmological distances is obtained and studied. These noncanonical cosmological models imply new interesting phenomenology including early time matter dominated solutions, cosmological scaling solutions and late time phantom domi…
The problems of coarse-graining and averaging of inhomogeneous cosmologies, and their backreaction on average cosmic evolution, are reviewed from a physical viewpoint. A particular focus is placed on comparing different notions of average spatial homogeneity, and on the interpretation of observational results. Among the physical questions we consider are: the nature of an average Copernican principle, the role of Mach's principle, the issue of quasilocal gravitational energy and the different roles of spacetime, spatial and null cone averages. The observational interpretation of the timescape …
It is known that any explicit averaging scheme of the type essential for describing the large scale behaviour 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) …
The present matter density of the Universe, while highly inhomogeneous on small scales, displays approximate homogeneity on large scales. We propose that whereas it is justified to use the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) line element (which describes an exactly homogeneous and isotropic universe) as a template to construct luminosity distances in order to compare observations with theory, the evolution of the scale factor in such a construction must be governed not by the standard Einstein equations for the FLRW metric, but by the modified Friedmann equations derived by Buchert [7, …
The question of the averaging of inhomogeneous spacetimes in cosmology is important for the correct interpretation of cosmological data. In this paper we suggest a conceptually simpler approach to averaging in cosmology based on the averaging of scalars within unimodular gravity. As an illustration, we consider the example of an exact spherically symmetric dust model, and show that within this approach averaging introduces correlations (corrections) to the effective dynamical evolution equation in the form of a spatial curvature term.
In this article, we present an example of an inhomogeneous cosmological model, which is inspired by the linear perturbation theory. The metric of this model can be described as the Einstein-de Sitter background with a periodically distributed dust overdensities. The model construction enables application of the Green-Wald averaging scheme and the Buchert averaging technique simultaneously. We compare the angular diameter distance function of the considered model to the angular diameter distances corresponding to the average space-times given by the Green-Wald and the Buchert frameworks respect…
We study cosmological dynamics and phase space of a scalar field localized on the DGP brane. We consider both the minimally and nonminimally coupled scalar quintessence and phantom fields on the brane. In the nonminimal case, the scalar field couples with induced gravity on the brane. We present a detailed analysis of the critical points, their stability and late-time cosmological viability of the solutions in the phase space of the model.
In this paper, we study a cosmological model inspired in the axionic matter with two canonical scalar fields $ϕ_1$ and $ϕ_2$ interacting through a term added to its potential. Introducing novel dynamical variables, and a dimensionless time variable, the resulting dynamical system is studied. The main difficulties arising in the standard dynamical systems approach, where expansion normalized dynamical variables are usually adopted, are due to the oscillations entering the nonlinear system through the Klein-Gordon (KG) equations. This motivates the analysis of the oscillations using methods from…
In the macroscopic gravity approach to the averaging problem in cosmology, the Einstein field equations on cosmological scales are modified by appropriate gravitational correlation terms. We study the averaging problem within the class of spherically symmetric cosmological models. That is, we shall take the microscopic equations and effect the averaging procedure to determine the precise form of the correlation tensor in this case. In particular, by working in volume preserving coordinates, we calculate the form of the correlation tensor under some reasonable assumptions on the form for the in…
The averaging problem in cosmology and the approach of macroscopic gravity to resolve the problem is discussed. The averaged Einstein equations of macroscopic gravity are modified on cosmological scales by the macroscopic gravitational correlation tensor terms as compared with the Einstein equations of general relativity. This correlation tensor satisfies a system of structure and field equations. An exact cosmological solution to the macroscopic gravity equations for a constant macroscopic gravitational connection correlation tensor for a flat spatially homogeneous, isotropic macroscopic spac…
Several extensions of General Relativity and high energy physics include scalar fields as extra degrees of freedom. In the search for predictions in the non-linear regime of cosmological evolution, the community makes use of numerical simulations in which the quasi-static limit is assumed when solving the equation of motion of the scalar field. In this Letter, we propose a method to solve the full equations of motion for scalar degrees of freedom coupled to matter. We run cosmological simulations which track the full time and space evolution of the scalar field, and find striking differences w…
Certain scalar-tensor theories of gravity provide negative-energy, tachyonic modes to a fundamental scalar inside matter, giving rise to non-perturbative phenomena around compact stars. Studies of this and other tachyonic instabilities always average over local matter properties. We use elementary, flat space models to understand possible collective effects and the accuracy of the averaging procedure. In particular, we consider bodies made of elementary constituents which do not, in isolation, scalarize because their compactness ${\cal C}$ is too small, ${\cal C}\lesssim {\cal C}_{\rm crit}$. …
The physical meaning of structure scalars is analyzed for charged dissipative spherical fluids and for neutral dust in the presence of cosmological constant. The role played by such factors in the structure scalars is clearly brought out and physical consequences are discussed. Particular attention needs to be paid to the changes introduced by the above mentioned factors in the inhomogeneity factor and the evolution of the expansion scalar and the shear tensor.
Averaged inhomogeneous cosmologies lie at the forefront of interest, since cosmological parameters like the rate of expansion or the mass density are to be considered as volume-averaged quantities and only these can be compared with observations. For this reason the relevant parameters are intrinsically scale-dependent and one wishes to control this dependence without restricting the cosmological model by unphysical assumptions. In the latter respect we contrast our way to approach the averaging problem in relativistic cosmology with shortcomings of averaged Newtonian models. Explicitly, we in…
This work is a follow-up to the paper, "Numerical Relativity as a Tool for Studying the Early Universe". In this article, we determine if cosmological gravitational waves can be accurately extracted from a dynamical spacetime using an averaging process as opposed to conventional methods of gravitational wave extraction using a complex Weyl scalar. We calculate the normalized energy density, strain and degree of polarization of gravitational waves produced by a simulated turbulent plasma similar to what was believed to have existed shortly after the electroweak scale. This calculation is comple…
The basic concepts and equations of Newtonian Cosmology are presented in the form necessary for the derivation and analysis of the averaged Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations. A particular attention is paid to the physical and cosmological hypotheses about the structure of Newtonian universes. The system of the Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations governing the cosmological dynamics of Newtonian universes is presented and discussed. A reformulation of the Navier-Stokes-Poisson equations in terms of the fluid kinematic quantities is given and the structure of this system of equations is analyzed.
In this paper I continue the investigation in \cite{1,1b} concerning my proposal on the nature of the cosmological constant. In particular, I study both mathematically and physically the quantum Planckian context and I provide, in order to depict quantum fluctuations and in absence of a complete quantum gravity theory, a semiclassical solution where an effective inhomogeneous metric at Planckian scales or above is averaged. In such a framework, a generalization of the well known Buchert formalism \cite{2} is obtained with the foliation in terms of the mean value $s(\hat{t})$ of the time operat…
We examine the exact perturbations that arise from the q-average formalism that was applied in the preceding article (part I) to Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) models. By introducing an initial value parametrization, we show that all LTB scalars that take a FLRW "look alike" form (frequently used in the literature dealing with LTB models) follow as q-averages of covariant scalars that are common to FLRW models. These q--scalars determine for every averaging domain a unique FLRW background state through Darmois matching conditions at the domain boundary, though the definition of this background do…
Due to the non-commutation of spatial averaging and temporal evolution, inhomogeneities and anisotropies (cosmic structures) influence the evolution of the averaged Universe via the cosmological backreaction mechanism. We study the backreaction effect as a function of averaging scale in a perturbative approach up to higher orders. We calculate the hierarchy of the critical scales, at which 10% effects show up from averaging at different orders. The dominant contribution comes from the averaged spatial curvature, observable up to scales of 200 Mpc. The cosmic variance of the local Hubble rate i…
Cosmological models typically neglect the complicated nature of the spacetime manifold at small scales in order to hypothesize idealized general relativistic solutions for describing the average dynamics of the Universe. Although these solutions are remarkably successful in accounting for data, they introduce a number of puzzles in cosmology, and their foundational assumptions are therefore important to test. In this paper, we go beyond the usual assumptions in cosmology and propose a formalism for averaging the local general relativistic spacetime on an observer's past null cone: we formulate…
We consider the entropy associated with the large-scale structure of the Universe in the linear regime, where the Universe can be described by a perturbed Friedmann-Lemaître spacetime. In particular, we compare two different definitions proposed in the literature for the entropy using a spatial averaging prescription. For one definition, the entropy of the large-scale structure for a given comoving volume always grows with time, both for a CDM and a $Λ$CDM model. In particular, while it diverges for a CDM model, it saturates to a constant value in the presence of a cosmological constant. The u…
On the basis of the relativistic kinetic theory the mathematical model of cosmological plasmas with an attraction of the like charged scalar particles is formulated. It is shown, that cosmological the model, based on a classical scalar field with an attraction, is unsatisfactory, that leads to necessity of attraction of phantom models of a scalar field for systems with an attraction.
Scalar field cosmologies with a generalized harmonic potential and a matter fluid with a barotropic Equation of State (EoS) with barotropic index $γ$ for the Locally Rotationally Symmetric (LRS) Bianchi I and flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metrics are investigated. Methods from the theory of averaging of nonlinear dynamical systems are used to prove that time-dependent systems and their corresponding time-averaged versions have the same late-time dynamics. Therefore, the simplest time-averaged system determines the future asymptotic behavior. Depending on the values of $γ$, th…
