We perform here a global analysis of the growth index $γ$ behaviour from deep in the matter era till the far future. For a given cosmological model in GR or in modified gravity, the value of $γ(Ω_{m})$ is unique when the decaying mode of scalar perturbations is negligible. However, $γ_{\infty}$, the value of $γ$ in the asymptotic future, is unique even in the presence of a nonnegligible decaying mode today. Moreover $γ$ becomes arbitrarily large deep in the matter era. Only in the limit of a vanishing decaying mode do we get a finite $γ$, from the past to the future in this case. We find further a condition for $γ(Ω_{m})$ to be monotonically decreasing (or increasing). This condition can be violated inside general relativity (GR) for varying $w_{DE}$ though generically $γ(Ω_{m})$ will be monotonically decreasing (like $Λ$CDM), except in the far future and past. A bump or a dip in $G_{\rm eff}$ can also lead to a significant and rapid change in the slope $\frac{dγ}{dΩ_{m}}$. On a $Λ$CDM background, a $γ$ substantially lower (higher) than $0.55$ with a negative (positive) slope reflects the opposite evolution of $G_{\rm eff}$. In DGP models, $γ(Ω_{m})$ is monotonically increasing except in the far future. While DGP gravity becomes weaker than GR in the future and $w^{DGP}\to -1$, we still get $γ_{\infty}^{DGP}= γ_{\infty}^{ΛCDM}=\frac{2}{3}$. In contrast, despite $G^{DGP}_{\rm eff}\to G$ in the past, $γ$ does not tend to its value in GR because $\frac{dG^{DGP}_{\rm eff}}{dΩ_{m}}\Big|_{-\infty}\ne 0$.
We investigate the effect of peculiar velocities of inhomogeneities and the spatial curvature of the universe on the shape of the gravitational potential. To this end, we consider scalar perturbations of the FLRW metric. The gravitational potential satisfies a Helmholtz-type equation which follows from the system of linearized Einstein equations. We obtain analytical solutions of this equation in the cases of open and closed universes, filled with cold dark matter in presence of the cosmological constant. We demonstrate that, first, peculiar velocities significantly affect the screening length…
The dynamics of an inhomogeneous universe is studied with the methods of Loop Quantum Cosmology as an example of the quantization of vacuum cosmological spacetimes containing gravitational waves (Gowdy spacetimes). The analysis performed at the effective level shows that: (i) The initial Big Bang singularity is replaced (as in the case of homogeneous cosmological models) by a Big Bounce, joining deterministically two large universes, (ii) the universe size at the bounce is at least of the same order of magnitude as that of the background homogeneous universe, (iii) for each gravitational wave …
We consider the Universe at the late stage of its evolution and deep inside the cell of uniformity. At such scales, the Universe is highly inhomogeneous and is filled with inhomogeneities in the form of galaxies and the groups of galaxies. We also suggest that the Universe is filled with a perfect fluid, and its fluctuations have peculiar velocities of the same (non-relativistic) order of magnitude as for the inhomogeneities. In this sense, the inhomogeneities (e.g. galaxies) and fluctuations of perfect fluids are coupled with each other. We clarify some important points of this approach and p…
The evolution of an inhomogeneous universe composed entirely of matter is followed from an early, nearly uniform state until the time when the inhomogeneities have begun to grow large. The particular distribution of matter studied in this article is chosen to have a periodic variation in only one of the directions, which is simple enough to allow the behavior of the metric to be solved analytically, well beyond a linear approximation based on the initial smallness of the fluctuation. This example provides an illustration of a universe where the inhomogeneities can affect its average expansion …
In this short note we summarize the arguments against a significant back-reaction of inhomogeneities on the acceleration of the Universe. We also present a quick way to access the importance of back-reaction using the Fourier space presentation of inhomogeneities and properties of their power spectrum.
Using the focusing equation, the equation for the cosmological angular diameter distance is derived, based on the ideas of Academician Ya.B. Zel'dovich, namely, that the distribution of matter at small angles is not homogeneous, and the light cone is close to being empty. We propose some ways of testing a method for measuring the angular diameter distances and show that the proposed method leads to results that agree better with the experimental data than those obtained by the usual methods.
We consider spatially averaged inhomogeneous universe models and argue that, already in the absence of sources, an effective scalar field arises through foliating and spatially averaging inhomogeneous geometrical curvature invariants of the Einstein vacuum. This scalar field (the `morphon') acts as an inflaton, if we prescribe a potential of some generic form. We show that, for any initially negative average spatial curvature, the morphon is driven through an inflationary phase and leads - on average - to a spatially flat, homogeneous and isotropic universe model, providing initial conditions …
Usually, we assume that there is no inhomogeneity isotropic in terms of our location in our uni- verse. This assumption has not been observationally confirmed yet in sufficient accuracy, and we need to consider the possibility that there are non-negligible large-scale isotropic inhomogeneities in our universe. The existence of large-scale isotropic inhomogeneities affects the determination of the cosmological parameters. In particular, from only the distance-redshift relation, we can not dis- tinguish the inhomogeneous isotropic universe model from the homogeneous isotropic one, because of the…
Cosmic inflation, a period of accelerated expansion in the early universe, can give rise to large amplitude ultra-large scale inhomogeneities on distance scales comparable to or larger than the observable universe. The cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy on the largest angular scales is sensitive to such inhomogeneities and can be used to constrain the presence of ultra-large scale structure (ULSS). We numerically evolve nonlinear inhomogeneities present at the beginning of inflation in full General Relativity to assess the CMB quadrupole constraint on the amplitude of the initial flu…
We provide a simple but robust bound on the primordial curvature perturbation in the range $10^4 {\rm Mpc}^{-1} < k < 10^5 {\rm Mpc}^{-1}$, which has not been constrained so far unlike low wavenumber modes. Perturbations on these scales dissipate the energy of their acoustic oscillations by the Silk damping after primordial nucleosynthesis but before the redshift $z \sim 2 \times 10^6$ and reheat the photon bath without invoking CMB distortions. This {\it acoustic reheating} results in the decrease of the baryon-photon ratio. By combining independent measurements probing the nucleosynthesis er…
By making use of a simple model that captures the key features of the anomalous Maxwell equations, we study the role of inhomogeneities on the evolution of magnetic fields in a chiral plasma. We find that inhomogeneities of the chiral asymmetry by themselves do not prevent the anomaly-driven inverse cascade and, as in the homogeneous case, the magnetic helicity is transferred from shorter to longer wavelength helical modes of the magnetic field. However, we also find that the evolution appears to be sensitive to the effects of diffusion. In the case when diffusion is negligible, the inverse ca…
Hadronic inhomogeneities are formed after the quark hadron phase transition. The nature of the phase transition dictates the nature of the inhomogeneities formed. Recently some scenarios of inhomogeneities have been discussed where the strange quarks are in excess over the up and down quarks. The hadronization of these quarks will give rise to a large density of hyperons and kaons in addition to the protons and neutrons which are formed after the phase transition. These unstable hyperons decay into pions, muons and their respective neutrinos. Hence the plasma during this period consists of neu…
We analyze two different algorithms for constructing weakly inhomogeneous models for the low-redshift Universe, in order to provide a tool for testing the geodesic dynamics, within the sphere of validity for the Universe acceleration. We first implement the so-called quasi-isotropic solution in the late Universe, when a pure dark energy equation of state for the cosmological perfect fluid is considered. We demonstrate, that a solution exists only if the physical scale of the inhomogeneities is larger then the Hubble scale of the microphysics, which implies that inhomogeneities could not be obs…
In order to infer the impact of the small-scale physics to the large-scale properties of the universe, we use a series of cosmological $N$-body simulations of self-gravitating matter inhomogeneities to measure, for the first time, the response function of such a system defined as a functional derivative of the nonlinear power spectrum with respect to its linear counterpart. Its measured shape and amplitude are found to be in good agreement with perturbation theory predictions except for the coupling from small to large-scale perturbations. The latter is found to be significantly damped, follow…
We investigate the effect of backreaction due to inhomogeneities on the evolution of the present Universe by considering the Universe to be partitioned into multiple domains within the Buchert framework. Taking the observed present acceleration of the universe as an essential input, we study the effect of inhomogeneities on the future evolution. We find that the backreaction from inhomogeneities causes the acceleration to slow down in the future for a range of initial configurations and model parameters, and even lead in certain cases to the emergence of a future decelerating epoch. We conside…
In this paper, we consider the Universe at the late stage of its evolution and deep inside the cell of uniformity. At these scales, the Universe is filled with inhomogeneously distributed discrete structures (galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies). Supposing that the Universe contains also the cosmological constant and a perfect fluid with a negative constant equation of state (EoS) parameter $ω$ (e.g., quintessence, phantom or frustrated network of topological defects), we investigate scalar perturbations of the FRW metrics due to inhomogeneities. Our analysis shows that, to be compatible…
The Universe is inhomogeneous, and yet it seems to be incredibly well-characterised by a homogeneous relativistic model. One of the current challenges is to accurately characterise the properties of such a model. In this paper we explore how inhomogeneities may affect the overall optical properties of the Universe by quantifying how they can bias the redshift-distance relation in a number of toy models that mimic the real Universe. The models that we explore are statistically homogeneous on large scales. We find that the effect of inhomogeneities is of order of a few percent, which can be quit…
We investigate the effect of backreaction due to inhomogeneities on the evolution of the present universe by considering a two-scale model within the Buchert framework. Taking the observed present acceleration of the universe as an essential input, we study the effect of inhomogeneities in the future evolution. We find that the backreaction from inhomogeneities causes the acceleration to slow down in the future for a range of initial configurations and model parameters. The present acceleration ensures formation of the cosmic event horizon, and our analysis brings out how the effect of the eve…
We propose that dark energy in the form of a scalar field could effectively couple to dark matter inhomogeneities. Through this coupling energy could be transferred to/from the scalar field, which could possibly enter an accelerated regime. Though phenomenological, this scenario is interesting as it provides a natural trigger for the onset of the acceleration of the universe, since dark energy starts driving the expansion of the universe when matter inhomogeneities become sufficiently strong. Here we study a possible realization of this idea by coupling dark energy to dark matter via the linea…
We investigate the effect of backreaction due to inhomogeneities on the evolution of the present universe within the Buchert framework. Our analysis shows how backreaction from inhomogeneities in the presence of the cosmic event horizon causes the current acceleration of the Universe to slow down in the future and even lead in certain cases to the emergence of a future decelerating epoch.
Usually, we assume that there is no inhomogeneity isotropic in terms of our location in the universe. This assumption has not been observationally confirmed yet in sufficient accuracy and we need to consider a method to restrict isotropic inhomogeneities more strongly. If there are isotropic inhomogeneities in the universe, the gravitational wave background is induced by nonlinear interactions between isotropic inhomogeneities and anisotropic inhomogeneous density perturbations. In this paper, we calculate the power spectrum and the relative energy density of this gravitational wave background…
Standard models of galaxy formation predict that matter distribution is statistically homogeneous and isotropic and characterized by (i) spatial homogeneity for r<10 Mpc/h, (ii) small-amplitude structures of relatively limited size (i.e., r<100) Mpc/h and (iii) anti-correlations for r > r_c ~ 150 Mpc/h (i.e., no structures of size larger than r_c). Whether or not the observed galaxy distribution is interpreted to be compatible with these predictions depend on the a-priori assumptions encoded in the statistical methods employed to characterize the data and on the a-posteriori hypotheses made to…
Inflation provides a natural mechanism to account for the origin of cosmic structures. The generation of primordial inhomogeneities during inflation can be understood via the spontaneous creation of quanta from the vacuum. We show that when the corresponding {\it stimulated} creation of quanta is considered, the characteristics of the state of the universe at the onset of inflation are not diluted by the inflationary expansion and can be imprinted in the spectrum of primordial inhomogeneities. The non-gaussianities (particularly in the so-called squeezed configuration) in the cosmic microwave …
The current standard model of cosmology, the LambdaCDM model, is based on the homogeneous FLRW solutions of the Einstein equations to which some perturbations are added to account for the CMB features and structure formation at large scales. This model fits rather well the observations provided 95% of the energy density budget of the Universe should be of an unknown physical nature, i.e. dark matter and dark energy. Now, the aim of a cosmological model is not merely to reproduce the observations, but also to give a physical understanding of the Universe we live in. Moreover, even if the assump…
No. In a number of papers Green and Wald argue that the standard FLRW model approximates our Universe extremely well on all scales, except close to strong field astrophysical objects. In particular, they argue that the effect of inhomogeneities on average properties of the Universe (backreaction) is irrelevant. We show that this latter claim is not valid. Specifically, we demonstrate, referring to their recent review paper, that (i) their two-dimensional example used to illustrate the fitting problem differs from the actual problem in important respects, and it assumes what is to be proven; (i…
After electron-positron annihilation and prior to photon decoupling the magnetic Reynolds number is approximately twenty orders of magnitude larger than its kinetic counterpart which is, in turn, smaller than one. In this globally neutral system the large-scale inhomogeneities are provided by the spatial fluctuations of the scalar curvature. Owing to the analogy with the description of Markovian conducting fluids in the presence of acoustic fluctuations, the evolution equations of a putative magnetic field are averaged over the large-scale flow determined by curvature perturbations. General le…
We consider the Universe deep inside the cell of uniformity. At these scales, the Universe is filled with inhomogeneously distributed discrete structures (galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies), which perturb the background Friedmann model. Here, the mechanical approach (Eingorn & Zhuk, 2012) is the most appropriate to describe the dynamics of the inhomogeneities which is defined, on the one hand, by gravitational potentials of inhomogeneities and, on the other hand, by the cosmological expansion of the Universe. In this paper, we present additional arguments in favor of this approach. Fir…
Supernovae observations strongly support the presence of a cosmological constant, but its value, which we will call apparent, is normally determined assuming that the Universe can be accurately described by a homogeneous model. Even in the presence of a cosmological constant we cannot exclude nevertheless the presence of a small local inhomogeneity which could affect the apparent value of the cosmological constant. Neglecting the presence of the inhomogeneity can in fact introduce a systematic misinterpretation of cosmological data, leading to the distinction between an apparent and true value…
Relic neutrinos from the Big Bang decoupled from the hot plasma predominantly in helicity eigenstates. Their subsequent propagation through gravitational inhomogeneities of the Universe alters the helicities of both Dirac and Majorana neutrinos, thus providing an independent probe of the evolving universe. We determine here the probability that relic neutrinos flip their helicity, in terms of the spectrum of density inhomogeneities measured in the Cosmic Microwave Background. As we find, for Dirac neutrinos the gravitational helicity modifications are intermediate between the effects of magnet…
A number of misunderstandings about modeling the apparent accelerated expansion of the Universe, and about the `weak singularity' are clarified: 1. Of the five definitions of the deceleration parameter given by Hirata and Seljak (HS), only $q_1$ is a correct invariant measure of acceleration/deceleration of expansion. The $q_3$ and $q_4$ are unrelated to acceleration in an inhomogeneous model. 2. The averaging over directions involved in the definition of $q_4$ does not correspond to what is done in observational astronomy. 3. HS's equation (38) connecting $q_4$ to the flow invariants gives se…
The effects of local inhomogeneities on low redshift $H_0$ determinations are studied by estimating the redshift-distance relation of mock sources in N-body simulations. The results are compared to those obtained using the standard approach based on Hubble's law. The comparison shows a clear tendency for the standard approach to yield lower values of $H_0$ than the approach based on the scheme using light rays. The difference is, however, small. More precisely, it is found that the overall effect of inhomogeneities on the determination of $H_0$ is a small increase in the local estimates of abo…
It is commonly stated that we have entered the era of precision cosmology in which a number of important observations have reached a degree of precision, and a level of agreement with theory, that is comparable with many Earth-based physics experiments. One of the consequences is the need to examine at what point our usual, well-worn assumption of homogeneity associated to the use of perturbation theory begins to compromise the accuracy of our models. It is now a widely accepted fact that the effect of the inhomogeneities observed in the Universe cannot be ignored when one wants to construct a…
We study a three-component universe filled with dust-like matter in the form of discrete inhomogeneities (e.g., galaxies) and perfect fluids characterized by linear and nonlinear equations of state. Within the cosmic screening approach, we develop the theory of scalar and vector perturbations. None of the energy density contrasts associated with the distinct components is treated as small. Consequently, the derived equations are valid at both sub- and super-horizon scales and enable simulations for a variety of cosmological models.
Exact solutions of the perturbations equations in the magnetized LambdaCDM scenario are presented. They apply during the dark ages and, more specifically, after the baryons are freed from the drag of the photons. The magnetized growth rate of matter perturbations is compared with the growth index obtained in the concordance paradigm and under the assumption that dark energy does not cluster for a redshift window ranging from the epoch of reionization to the stage of dark-energy dominance. The constraints derived from this analysis are shown to be qualitatively complementary and quantitatively …
Cosmic inflation is arguably the most favoured paradigm of the very early Universe. It postulates an early phase of fast, nearly exponential, and accelerated expansion. Inflationary models are capable of explaining the overall flatness and homogeneity of today's Universe at large scales. Despite being widely accepted by the physics community, these models are not absent from criticism. In scalar field inflation, a necessary condition to begin inflation is the requirement of a Universe dominated by the field's potential, which implies a subdominant contribution from the scalar field dynamics. T…
It is generally assumed that on sufficiently large scales the Universe is well-described as a homogeneous, isotropic FRW cosmology with a dark energy. Does the formation of nonlinear cosmic inhomogeneities produce a significant effect on the average large-scale FLRW dynamics? As an answer, we suggest that if the length scale at which homogeneity sets in is much smaller than the Hubble length scale, the back-reaction due to averaging over inhomogeneities is negligible. This result is supported by more than one approach to study of averaging in cosmology. Even if no single approach is sufficient…
We point out that in the early universe, for temperatures in the approximate interval 175-80 MeV (after the quark-gluon plasma), pions carried a large share of the entropy and supported the largest inhomogeneities. Thus, we examine the production of entropy in a pion gas, particularizing to inhomogeneities of the temperature, for which we benefit from the known thermal conductivity. We finally put that entropy produced in relaxing such thermal inhomogeneities in the broad context of this relatively unexplored phase of early-universe cosmology.
The Universe is not completely homogeneous. Even if it is sufficiently so on large scales, it is very inhomogeneous at small scales, and this has an effect on light propagation, so that the distance as a function of redshift, which in many cases is defined via light propagation, can differ from the homogeneous case. Simple models can take this into account. I review the history of this idea, its generalization to a wide variety of cosmological models, analytic solutions of simple models, comparison of such solutions with exact solutions and numerical simulations, applications, simpler analytic…
While cosmological inflation can erase primordial inhomogeneities, it is possible that inflation may not begin in a significantly inhomogeneous universe. This issue is particularly pressing in multifield scenarios, where even the homogeneous dynamics may depend sensitively on the initial configuration. This paper presents an initial survey of the onset of inflation in multifield models, via qualitative lattice-based simulations that do not include local gravitational backreaction. Using hybrid inflation as a test model, our results suggest that small subhorizon inhomogeneities do play a key ro…
The large scale distribution of galaxies in the universe displays a complex pattern of clusters, super-clusters, filaments and voids with sizes limited only by the boundaries of the available samples. A quantitative statistical characterization of these structures shows that galaxy distribution is inhomogeneous in these samples, being characterized by large-amplitude fluctuations of large spatial extension. Over a large range of scales, both the average conditional density and its variance show a nontrivial scaling behavior: at small scales, r<20 Mpc/h, the average (conditional) density scales…
The current cosmological dark sector (dark matter plus dark energy) is challenging our comprehension about the physical processes taking place in the Universe. Recently, some authors tried to falsify the basic underlying assumptions of such dark matter-dark energy paradigm. In this Letter, we show that oversimplifications of the measurement process may produce false positives to any consistency test based on the globally homogeneous and isotropic LCDM model and its expansion history based on distance measurements. In particular, when local inhomogeneity effects due to clumped matter or voids a…
In this paper we consider the Universe at the late stage of its evolution and deep inside the cell of uniformity. At these scales, the Universe is filled with inhomogeneously distributed discrete structures (galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies). Supposing that a small fraction of colored objects escaped hadronization and survived up to now in the form of quark-gluon nuggets (QNs), and also taking into account radiation, we investigate scalar perturbations of the FRW metrics due to inhomogeneities of dustlike matter as well as fluctuations of QNs and radiation. In particular, we demonstra…
We study the impact of cosmic inhomogeneities on the interpretation of observations. We build an inhomogeneous universe model without dark energy that can confront supernova data and yet is reasonably well compatible with the Copernican Principle. Our model combines a relatively small local void, that gives apparent acceleration at low redshifts, with a meatball model that gives sizeable lensing (dimming) at high redshifts. Together these two elements, which focus on different effects of voids on the data, allow the model to mimic the concordance model.
We develop a new, mathematically precise framework for treating the effects of nonlinear phenomena occurring on small scales in general relativity. Our approach is an adaptation of Burnett's formulation of the "shortwave approximation", which we generalize to analyze the effects of matter inhomogeneities as well as gravitational radiation. Our framework requires the metric to be close to a "background metric", but allows arbitrarily large stress-energy fluctuations on small scales. We prove that, within our framework, if the matter stress-energy tensor satisfies the weak energy condition (i.e.…
Motivated by the dawn of precision cosmology and the wealth of forthcoming high precision and volume galaxy surveys, in this paper we study the effects of inhomogeneities on light propagation in a flat ΛCDM background. To this end we use exact solutions of Einstein's equations (Meures & Bruni 2011) where, starting from small fluctuations, inhomogeneities arise from a standard growing mode and become non-linear. While the matter distribution in these models is necessarily idealised, there is still enough freedom to assume an arbitrary initial density profile along the line of sight. We can ther…
A dark photon may kinetically mix with the Standard Model photon, leading to observable cosmological signatures. The mixing is resonantly enhanced when the dark photon mass matches the primordial plasma frequency, which depends sensitively on the underlying spatial distribution of electrons. Crucially, inhomogeneities in this distribution can have a significant impact on the nature of resonant conversions. We develop and describe, for the first time, a general analytic formalism to treat resonant oscillations in the presence of inhomogeneities. Our formalism follows from the theory of level cr…
I look at the growth of weak density inhomogeneities of nonrelativistic matter, in bimetric-MOND (BIMOND) cosmology. I concentrate on matter-twin-matter-symmetric versions of BIMOND, and assume that, on average, the universe is symmetrically populated in the two sectors. MOND effects are absent in an exactly symmetric universe, apart from the appearance of a cosmological constant, Lambda~(a0/c)^2. MOND effects-local and cosmological-do enter when density inhomogeneities that differ in the two sectors appear and develop. MOND later takes its standard form in systems that are islands dominated b…
Most treatments of large scale anomalies in the microwave sky are a posteriori, with unquantified look-elsewhere effects. We contrast these with physical models of specific inhomogeneities in the early universe which then generate apparent anomalies. Physical models predict correlations between candidate anomalies, as well as the corresponding signals in polarization and large scale structure, reducing the impact of cosmic variance. We compute the apparent spatial curvature associated with large-scale inhomogeneities and show that it is typically small, allowing for a self-consistent analysis.…
We investigate a model of gravitational collapse of matter inhomogeneities where the latter are modelled as Bianchi type IX (BIX) spacetimes. We found that this model contains, as limiting cases, both the standard spherical collapse model and the Zeldovich solution for a 1-dimensional perturbation. We study how these models are affected by small anisotropic perturbations within the BIX potential. For the spherical collapse case, we found that the model is equivalent to a closed FLRW Universe filled with matter and two perfect fluids representing the anisotropic contributions. From the linear e…
A refined version of a recently introduced method for analysing the dynamics of an inhomogeneous irrotational dust universe is presented. A fully non-perturbative numerical computation of the time dependence of volume in this framework leads to the following results. If the initial state of the universe is Einstein-de Sitter with small Gaussian perturbations, then there is no acceleration even though the inhomogeneities strongly affect the evolution. A universe with a positive background curvature can exhibit acceleration, but not in conjunction with reasonable values for the Hubble rate. Thus…
The standard cosmological model assumes a homogeneous and isotropic universe as the background spacetime on large scales called the cosmological principle. However, some observations suggest the possibility of an inhomogeneous and anisotropic universe at large scales. In this paper, we investigate a model of the universe with random inhomogeneities and anisotropies on very large scales, motivated by the supercurvature dark energy model in Nan et al. [Phys. Rev. D 99, 103512 (2019)]. In this model, the authors introduced a scalar field with $\mathcal{O}(1)$ inhomogeneities on a scale sufficient…
The detection of gravitational waves (GWs) and an accompanying electromagnetic (E/M) counterpart have been suggested as a future probe for cosmology and theories of gravity. In this paper, we present calculations of the luminosity distance of sources taking into account inhomogeneities in the matter distribution that are predicted in numerical simulations of structure formation. In addition, we show that inhomogeneities resulting from clustering of matter can mimic certain classes of modified gravity theories, or other effects that dampen GW amplitudes, and deviations larger than $δν\sim \math…
The realistic equation of state of strongly interacting matter, that has been successfully applied in the recent hydrodynamic studies of hadron production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC, is used in the Friedmann equation to determine the precise time evolution of thermodynamic parameters in the early Universe. A comparison with the results obtained with simple ideal-gas equations of state is made. The realistic equation of state describes a crossover rather than the first-order phase transition between the quark-gluon plasma and hadronic matter. Our numerical calculations show th…
