Cosmological perturbation theory is a key tool to study the universe. The linear or first order theory is well understood, however, developing and applying the theory beyond linear order is at the cutting edge of current research in theoretical cosmology. In this article, I will describe some signatures of non-linear perturbation theory that do not exist at linear order, focusing on vorticity generation at second order. In doing so, we discuss why this, among other features such as induced gravitational waves and non-Gaussianities, shows that cosmological perturbation theory is crucial for testing models of the universe.
We study the cosmological perturbations in teleparallel dark energy models in which there is a dynamical scalar field with a non-minimal coupling to gravity. We find that the propagating degrees of freedom are the same as in quintessence cosmology despite that variables of the perturbed vierbein field are greater than those in metric theories. We numerically show some evident discrepancy from general relativity in the evolutions of the perturbations on all scales of the universe. We also demonstrate that the gravitational interactions are enhanced during the unique tracker evolutions in these …
The relativistic generalization of the Newtonian Lagrangian perturbation theory is investigated. In previous works, the first-order trace solutions that are generated by the spatially projected gravitoelectric part of the Weyl tensor were given together with extensions and applications for accessing the nonperturbative regime. We furnish here construction rules to obtain from Newtonian solutions the gravitoelectric class of relativistic solutions, for which we give the complete perturbation and solution schemes at any order of the perturbations. By construction, these schemes generalize the co…
The era of precision cosmology has allowed us to accurately determine many important cosmological parameters, in particular via the CMB. Confronting Loop Quantum Cosmology with these observations provides us with a powerful test of the theory. For this to be possible we need a detailed understanding of the generation and evolution of inhomogeneous perturbations during the early, Quantum Gravity, phase of the universe. Here we describe how Loop Quantum Cosmology provides a completion of the inflationary paradigm, that is consistent with the observed power spectra of the CMB.
In this paper we investigate the scalar mode of first-order metric perturbations over spatially flat FRW spacetime when the holonomy correction is taken into account in the semi-classical framework of loop quantum cosmology. By means of the Hamiltonian derivation, the cosmological perturbation equations is obtained in longitudinal gauge. It turns out that in the presence of metric perturbation the holonomy effects influence both background and perturbations, and contribute the non-trivial terms $S_{h1}$ and $S_{h2}$ in the cosmological perturbation equations.
The Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi solution has received much attention as a possible alternative to Dark Energy, as it is able to account for the apparent acceleration of the Universe without any exotic matter content. However, in order to make rigorous comparisons between these models and cosmological observations, such as the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, baryon acoustic oscillations and the observed matter power spectrum, it is absolutely necessary to have a proper understanding of the linear perturbation theory about them. Here we present this theory in a fully general, and gauge-invariant form. …
Gauge invariance of scalar perturbations is studied together with the associated equations of motion. Extending methods developed in the framework of hamiltonian General Relativity, the Hamilton-Jacobi equation is investigated into the details in Loop Quantum Cosmology. The gauge-invariant observables are built and their equations of motions are reviewed both in Hamiltonian and Lagrangian approaches. This method is applied to scalar perturbations with either holonomy or inverse-volume corrections.
In this paper we present four simple expressions for the relativistic first and second order fractional density perturbations for $Λ$CDM cosmologies in different gauges: the Poisson, uniform curvature, total matter and synchronous gauges. A distinctive feature of our approach is the use of a canonical set of quadratic differential expressions involving an arbitrary spatial function, the so-called comoving curvature perturbation, to describe the spatial dependence, which enables us to unify, simplify and extend previous seemingly disparate results. The simple structure of the expressions makes …
It is shown how quantum fluctuations of the radiation during the contraction era of a CBE (Comes Back Empty) cyclic cosmology can provide density fluctuations which re-enter the horizon during the subsequent expansion era and at lowest order are scale invariant, in a Harrison-Zel'dovich-Peebles sense, as necessary to be consistent with observations of large scale structure.
We give a pedagogical review of a covariant and fully non-perturbative approach to study nonlinear perturbations in cosmology. In the first part, devoted to cosmological fluids, we define a nonlinear extension of the uniform-density curvature perturbation and derive its evolution equation. In the second part, we focus our attention on multiple scalar fields and present a nonlinear description in terms of adiabatic and entropy perturbations. In both cases, we show how the formalism presented here enables one to easily obtain equations up to second, third and higher orders.
We study, by numerical methods, the time evolution of scalar perturbations in radiation era of Randall-Sundrum braneworld cosmology. Our results confirm an existence of the enhancement of perturbation amplitudes (near horizon crossing), discovered recently. We suggest the approximate solution of equations of the perturbation theory in the high energy regime, which predicts that the enhancement factor is asymptotically constant, as a function of scale. We discuss the application of this result for the problem of primordial black hole production in braneworld cosmology.
We study perturbations around some cosmological backgrounds in the dRGT theory of massive gravity. We develop a general formalism to calculate the perturbations around any background. We derive the Lagrangian for fluctuations in the small scale limit, and for the open FRW solution we repeat the analysis around the full background. We find that the perturbations display similar properties: the longitudinal modes of the massive graviton are instantaneous at quadratic level, but they acquire a time-kinetic term at cubic order.
We study cosmological perturbations arising from thermal fluctuations in the big-bounce cosmology in the Einstein-Cartan-Sciama-Kibble theory of gravity. We show that such perturbations cannot have a scale-invariant spectrum if fermionic matter minimally coupled to the torsion tensor is macroscopically averaged as a spin fluid, but have a scale-invariant spectrum if the Dirac form of the spin tensor of the fermionic matter is used.
It has been pointed out that matter bounce cosmology driven by a k-essence field cannot satisfy simultaneously the observational bounds on the tensor-to-scalar ratio and non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbation. In this paper, we show that this is not the case in more general scalar-tensor theories. To do so, we evaluate the power spectra and the bispectra of scalar and tensor perturbations on a general contracting background in the Horndeski theory. We then discuss how one can discriminate contracting models from inflation based on non-Gaussian signatures of tensor perturbations.
In this note cosmological models coming out of the String Field Theory (SFT) in application to the Dark Energy are reviewed. A way of constructing solutions in the case of linear models is outlined, cosmological perturbations and observational evidences of such models are explored. We explicitly demonstrate the stability of the system at the linear order in the most typical configuration.
In a previous paper [arXiv:1308.1852] we showed how a finite system of discrete particles interacting with each other via Newtonian gravitational attraction would lead to precisely the same dynamical equations for homothetic motion as in the case of the pressure-free Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmological models of General Relativity Theory, provided the distribution of particles obeys the central configuration equation. In this paper we show one can obtain perturbed such Newtonian solutions that give the same linearised structure growth equations as in the general relativity case. W…
We investigate a spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmology in which a decaying vacuum term causes matter production at late times. Assuming a decay proportional to the Hubble rate, the ratio of the background energy densities of dark matter and dark energy changes with the cosmic scale factor as $a^{-3/2}$. The intrinsically non-adiabatic two-component perturbation dynamics of this model is reduced to a single second-order equation. Perturbations of the vacuum term are shown to be negligible on scales that are relevant for structure formation. On larger scales, dark-energy p…
This article is devoted to the study of scalar perturbations in loop quantum cosmology. It aims at clarifying the situation with respect to the way initial conditions are set and to the specific choice of an inflaton potential. Several monomial potentials are studied. Both the dressed metric and deformed algebra approaches are considered. We show that the calculation of the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, which is the physically relevant region for most background trajectories, is reliable, whereas the infrared and intermediate parts do depend on some specific choices that are made explicit.
Holonomy corrections to scalar perturbations are investigated in the loop quantum cosmology framework. Due to the effective approach, modifications of the algebra of constraints generically lead to anomalies. In order to remove those anomalies, counter-terms are introduced. We find a way to explicitly fulfill the conditions for anomaly freedom and we give explicit expressions for the counter-terms. Surprisingly, the "new quantization scheme" naturally arises in this procedure. The gauge invariant variables are found and equations of motion for the anomaly-free scalar perturbations are derived.…
We investigate vector perturbations with holonomy corrections in the framework of loop quantum cosmology. Conditions to achieve anomaly freedom for these perturbations are found at all orders. This requires the introduction of counter-terms in the hamiltonian constraint. We also show that anomaly freedom requires the diffeomorphism constraint to hold its classical form when scalar matter is added although the issue of a vector matter source, required for full consistency, remains to be investigated. The gauge-invariant variable and the corresponding equation of motion are derived. The propagat…
In this paper we contrasted two cosmological perturbation theory formalisms, the 1+3 covariant gauge invariant and the gauge invariant by comparing their gauge invariant variables associated with magnetic field defined in each approach. In the first part we give an introduction to each formalism assuming the presence of a magnetic field. We found that gauge invariant quantities defined by 1+3 covariant approach are related with spatial variations of the magnetic field (defined in the gauge invariant formalism) between two closed fundamental observers. This relation was computed by choosing the…
We present a well-tempered DeWitt wave function, which vanishes at the classical big-bang singularity, in Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) cosmology with tensor perturbation, both analytically and numerically. In general relativity, the DeWitt wave function is ill-behaved once the tensor perturbation is taken into account. This is essentially because the amplitude of the perturbation diverges at the singularity and the perturbative expansion completely breaks down. On the other hand, in HL gravity it is known that the higher dimensional operators required by the perturbative renormalizability render the t…
We compute the running of the spectrum of cosmological perturbations in String Gas Cosmology, making use of a smooth parametrization of the transition between the early Hagedorn phase and the later radiation phase. We find that the running has the same sign as in simple models of single scalar field inflation. Its magnitude is proportional to $(1 - n_s)$ ($n_s$ being the slope index of the spectrum), and it is thus parametrically larger than for inflationary cosmology, where it is proportional to $(1 - n_s)^2$.
We study perturbations of a scalar field cosmology in Horava-Lifshitz gravity, adopting the most general setup without detailed balance but with the projectability condition. We derive the generalized Klein-Gordon equation, which is sixth-order in spatial derivatives. Then we investigate scalar field perturbations coupled to gravity in a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background. In the sub-horizon regime, the metric and scalar field modes have independent oscillations with different frequencies and phases except in particular cases. On super-horizon scales, the perturbations become adiabatic…
We investigate the future evolution of the universe using the Buchert framework for averaged backreaction in the context of a two-domain partition of the universe. We show that this approach allows for the possibility of the global acceleration vanishing at a finite future time, provided that none of the subdomains accelerate individually. The model at large scales is analogously described in terms of a homogeneous scalar field emerging with a potential that is fixed and free from phenomenological parametrization. The dynamics of this scalar field is explored in the analogous FLRW cosmology. W…
We obtain exact expressions for the effect of primordial non-Gaussianity on the matter density perturbation up to second order in a LambdaCDM cosmology, fully accounting for the general relativistic corrections arising on scales comparable with the Hubble radius. We present our results both in the Poisson gauge and in the comoving and synchronous gauge, which are relevant for comparison to different cosmological observables.
In the matter bounce scenario, a dust-dominated contracting space-time generates scale-invariant perturbations that, assuming a nonsingular bouncing cosmology, propagate to the expanding branch and set appropriate initial conditions for the radiation-dominated era. Since this scenario depends on the presence of a bounce, it seems appropriate to consider it in the context of loop quantum cosmology where a bouncing universe naturally arises. For a pressureless collapsing universe in loop quantum cosmology, the predicted power spectrum of the scalar perturbations after the bounce is scale-invaria…
The relativistic generalization of the Newtonian Lagrangian perturbation theory is investigated. In previous works, the perturbation and solution schemes that are generated by the spatially projected gravitoelectric part of the Weyl tensor were given to any order of the perturbations, together with extensions and applications for accessing the nonperturbative regime. We here discuss more in detail the general first-order scheme within the Cartan formalism including and concentrating on the gravitational wave propagation in matter. We provide master equations for all parts of Lagrangian-lineari…
Astronomical observations reveal hierarchical structures in the Universe, from galaxies, groups of galaxies, clusters and superclusters, to filaments and voids. On the largest scales it seems that some kind of statistical homogeneity can be observed. As a result, modern cosmological models are based on spatially homogeneous and isotropic solutions of the Einstein equations, and the evolution of the universe is approximated by the Friedmann equations. In parallel to standard homogeneous cosmology, the field of inhomogeneous cosmology and backreaction is being developed. This field investigates …
We summarize our investigations of the second-order perturbations in loop quantum cosmology (LQC). We shall discuss, primarily, two aspects. Firstly, whether the second-order contributions arising from the cosmic bounce, occurring at Planck scale, could be large enough to break the validity of perturbation theory. Secondly, the implications of the upper bounds on primordial non-Gaussianity, arrived at by the Planck collaboration, on the LQC phenomenology.
We study the dynamical stability of "tachyacoustic" cosmological models, in which primordial perturbations are generated by a shrinking sound horizon during a period of decelerating expansion. Such models represent a potential alternative to inflationary cosmology, but the phase-space behavior of tachyacoustic solutions has not previously been investigated. We numerically evaluate the dynamics of two non-canonical Lagrangians, a cuscuton-like Lagrangian and a Dirac-Born-Infeld Lagrangian, which generate a scale-invariant spectrum of perturbations. We show that the power-law background solution…
We reconsider the gravitational wave spectrum induced by scalar perturbations in spatially flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetimes, focusing on the matter- and $Λ$-dominated epochs. During matter domination, sub-horizon modes are not free and a commonly applied approximation for the derivative of the tensor perturbation is flawed. We show analytically that this leads to a significant overestimation of the energy density spectrum. In addition, we demonstrate that gauge-dependent non-oscillating tensor perturbations appear in the presence of a cosmological constant. Complementing the…
We study the dynamics of the scalar modes of linear perturbations around a flat, homogeneous and isotropic background in loop quantum cosmology. The equations of motion include quantum geometry effects and hold at all curvature scales so long as the wavelengths of the inhomogeneous modes of interest remain larger than the Planck length. These equations are obtained by including holonomy corrections in an effective Hamiltonian and then using the standard variational principle. We show that the effective scalar and diffeomorphism constraints are preserved by the dynamics. We also make some comme…
We analytically and numerically show that through the cycles with nonsingular bounce the amplitude of curvature perturbation on large scale will be amplified and the power spectrum will be redden. In some sense, this amplification will eventually destroy the homogeneity of background, which will lead to the ultimate end of cycles of global universe. We argue that for the model with increasing cycles, it might be possible that a fissiparous multiverse will emerge after one or several cycles, in which the cycles will continue only at corresponding local regions.
We provide the power spectrum of small scalar perturbations propagating in an inflationary scenario within loop quantum cosmology. We consider the hybrid quantization approach applied to a Friedmann--Robertson--Walker spacetime with flat spatial sections coupled to a massive scalar field. We study the quantum dynamics of scalar perturbations on an effective background within this hybrid approach. We consider in our study adiabatic states of different orders. For them, we find that the hybrid quantization is in good agreement with the predictions of the dressed metric approach. We also propose …
We study primordial cosmology with two scalar fields that participate in inflation at the same time, by coupling quantum gravity (i.e., the theory $R+R^{2}+C^{2}$ with the fakeon prescription/projection for $C^{2}$) to a scalar field with a quadratic potential. We show that there exists a perturbative regime that can be described by an asymptotically de Sitter, cosmic RG flow in two couplings. Since the two scalar degrees of freedom mix in nontrivial ways, the adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations are not RG invariant on superhorizon scales. It is possible to identify the correct perturbati…
We investigate thermal inflation in double-screen entropic cosmology. We find that its realization is general, resulting from the system evolution from non-equilibrium to equilibrium. Furthermore, going beyond the background evolution, we study the primordial curvature perturbations arising from the universe interior, as well as from the thermal fluctuations generated on the holographic screens. We show that the power spectrum is nearly scale-invariant with a red tilt, while the tensor-to-scalar ratio is in agreement with observations. Finally, we examine the non-Gaussianities of primordial cu…
In the non-relativistic theory of gravity recently proposed by Horava, the Hamiltonian constraint is not satisfied locally at each point in space. The absence of the local Hamiltonian constraint allows the system to have an extra dark-matter-like component as an integration constant. We discuss consequences of this fact in the context of cosmological perturbations, paying a particular attention to the large scale evolution of the curvature perturbation. The curvature perturbation is defined in a gauge invariant manner with this ``dark matter'' taken into account. We then clarify the conditions…
A nonsingular emergent universe cosmology can be realized by a nonconventional spinor field as first developed in \cite{Cai:2012yf}. We study the mechanisms of generating scale-invariant primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbation in the frame of spinor emergent universe cosmology. Particularly, we introduce a light scalar field of which the kinetic term couples to the bilinear of the spinor field. This kinetic coupling can give rise to an effective "Hubble radius" for primordial fluctuations from the scalar field to squeeze at large length scales as well as to form a nearly scale-inva…
We consider the ekpyrotic paradigm in the context of loop quantum cosmology. In loop quantum cosmology the classical big-bang singularity is resolved due to quantum gravity effects, and so the contracting ekpyrotic branch of the universe and its later expanding phase are connected by a smooth bounce. Thus, it is possible to explicitly determine the evolution of scalar perturbations, from the contracting ekpyrotic phase through the bounce and to the post-bounce expanding epoch. The possibilities of having either one or two scalar fields have been suggested for the ekpyrotic universe, and both c…
In this paper we study gravitational wave perturbations in a cosmological setting of bigravity which can reproduce the ΛCDM background and large scale structure. We show that in general gravitational wave perturbations are unstable and only for very fine tuned initial conditions such a cosmology is viable. We quantify this fine tuning. We argue that similar fine tuning is also required in the scalar sector in order to prevent the tensor instability to be induced by second order scalar perturbations. Finally, we show that due to this power law instability, models of bigravity can lead to a larg…
We explore the Lagrangian perturbation theory (LPT) at 1-loop order with Gaussian initial conditions. We present an expansion method to approximately compute the power spectrum in LPT. Our approximate solution has good convergence in the series expansion and enables us to compute the power spectrum in LPT accurately and quickly. Non-linear corrections in the Lagrangian perturbation theory naturally satisfy the law of conservation of mass because the relation between matter density and the displacement vector of dark matter corresponds to the conservation of mass. By matching the 1-loop solutio…
We propose a mechanism borrowed from string theory which yields a non-singular transition from a phase of Ekpyrotic contraction to the expanding phase of Standard Big Bang cosmology. The same mechanism converts the initial vacuum spectrum of cosmological fluctuations before the bounce into a scale-invariant one, and also changes the spectrum of gravitational waves into an almost scale-invariant one. The scalar and tensor tilts are predicted to be the same, in contrast to the predictions from the "String Gas Cosmology" scenario. The amplitude of the gravitational wave spectrum depends on the ra…
We perform a combined perturbation and observational investigation of the scenario of non-minimal derivative coupling between a scalar field and curvature. First we extract the necessary condition that ensures the absence of instabilities, which is fulfilled more sufficiently for smaller coupling values. Then using Type Ia Supernovae (SNIa), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations, we show that, contrary to its significant effects on inflation, the non-minimal derivative coupling term has a negligible effect on the universe acceleration, since it …
We investigate non-singular bounce realizations in the framework of ghost-free generalized Galileon cosmology, which furthermore can be free of the anisotropy problem. Considering an Ekpyrotic-like potential we can obtain a total Equation-of-State (EoS) larger than one in the contracting phase, which is necessary for the evolution to be stable against small anisotropic fluctuations. Since such a large EoS forbids the Galileon field to generate the desired form of perturbations, we additionally introduce the curvaton field which can in general produce the observed nearly scale-invariant spectru…
We revisit the gauge issue in cosmological perturbation theory, and highlight its relation to the notion of covariance in general relativity. We also discuss the similarities and differences of the covariant approach in perturbation theory to the Bardeen or metric approach in a non-technical fashion.
Loop quantum gravity is a mature theory. To proceed to explicit calculations in cosmology, it is necessary to make assumptions and simplifications based on the symmetries of the cosmological setting. Symmetry reduction is especially critical when dealing with cosmological perturbations. The present article reviews several approaches to the problem of building a consistent formalism that describes the dynamics of perturbations on a quantum spacetime and tries to address their respective strengths and weaknesses. We also review the main open issues in loop quantum cosmology.
In minisuperspace quantum cosmology, the Lorentzian path integral formulations of the no-boundary and tunneling proposals have recently been analyzed. But it has been pointed out that the wave function of linearized perturbations around a homogeneous and isotropic background is of an inverse Gaussian form and thus that their correlation functions are divergent. In this paper, we revisit this issue and consider the problem of perturbations in Lorentzian quantum cosmology by modifying the dispersion relation based on trans-Planckian physics. We consider two modified dispersion relations, the gen…
We study cosmological perturbations for a ghost free massive gravity theory formulated with a dynamical extra metric that is needed to massive deform GR. In this formulation FRW background solutions fall in two branches. In the dynamics of perturbations around the first branch solutions, no extra degree of freedom with respect to GR ispresent at linearized level, likewise what is found in the Stuckelberg formulation of massive gravity where the extra metric isflat and non dynamical. In the first branch, perturbations are probably strongly coupled. On the contrary, for perturbations around the …
A suitable nonlinear interaction between dark matter with an energy density $ρ_{M}$ and dark energy with an energy density $ρ_{X}$ is known to give rise to a non-canonical scaling $ρ_{M} \propto ρ_{X}a^{-ξ}$ where $ξ$ is a parameter which generally deviates from $ξ=3$. Here we present a covariant generalization of this class of models and investigate the corresponding perturbation dynamics. The resulting matter power spectrum for the special case of a time-varying Lambda model is compared with data from the SDSS DR9 catalogue. We find a best-fit value of $ξ= 3.25$ which corresponds to a decay …
We study linear perturbations to a Lema{\^ı}tre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) background spacetime. Studying the transformation behaviour of the perturbations under gauge transformations, we construct gauge invariant quantities. We show, using the perturbed energy conservation equation, that there are conserved quantities in LTB, in particular a spatial metric trace perturbation, ζ_{SMTP}, which is conserved on all scales. We then briefly extend our discussion to the Lema{\^ı}tre spacetime, and construct gauge-invariant perturbations in this extension of LTB spacetime.
A variable speed of light (VSL) cosmology is described in which the causal mechanism of generating primordial perturbations is achieved by varying the speed of light in a primordial epoch. This yields an alternative to inflation for explaining the formation of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and the large scale structure (LSS) of the universe. We make use of the $δ{\cal N}$ formalism to identify signatures of primordial nonlinear fluctuations, and this allows the VSL model to be distinguished from inflationary models. In particular, we find that the parameter $f_{\rm NL}=5$ in the variab…
We investigate the bounce realization in the framework of DHOST cosmology, focusing on the relation with observables. We perform a detailed analysis of the scalar and tensor perturbations during the Ekpyrotic contraction phase, the bounce phase, and the fast-roll expansion phase, calculating the power spectra, the spectral indices, and the tensor to-scalar ratio. Furthermore, we study the initial conditions, incorporating perturbations generated by Ekpyrotic vacuum fluctuations, by matter vacuum fluctuations, and by thermal fluctuations. The scale invariance of the scalar power spectrum can be…
Multiple $Λ$CDM cosmology is studied in a way that is formally a classical analog of the Casimir effect. Such cosmology corresponds to a time-dependent dark fluid model or, alternatively, to its scalar field presentation, and it motivated by the string landscape picture. The future evolution of the several dark energy models constructed within the scheme is carefully investigated. It turns out to be almost always possible to choose the parameters in the models so that they match the most recent and accurate astronomical values. To this end, several universes are presented which mimick (multipl…
Motivated by the fact that cosmological models based on $f(Q)$ gravity are very efficient in fitting observational datasets at both background and perturbation levels, we perform a combined dynamical system analysis of both background and perturbation equations in order to examine the validity of this result through an independent method. We examine two studied $f(Q)$ models of the literature, namely the power-law and the exponential ones. For both cases, we obtain a matter-dominated saddle point characterized by the correct growth rate of matter perturbations, followed by the transition to a …
We investigate linear perturbations in the recently proposed cosmon-bolon model of coupled scalar field dark matter and quintessence. We provide an analytical mechanism to average over the quick oscillations appearing both in the background and at the perturbative level and evolve the effective equations numerically. The resulting matter power spectra are used to predict total halo number counts as well as substructure abundances in a typical galaxy by employing the extended Press-Schechter excursion set approach. We discuss in some detail the ambiguities arising in this formalism, starting fr…
