Is backreaction really small within concordance cosmology?

DOI10.1088/0264-9381/28/16/164010zbMATH Open1225.83088arXiv1105.1886OpenAlexW3100474056WikidataQ63390960 ScholiaQ63390960MaRDI QIDQ3173067FDOQ3173067

C. Clarkson, Obinna Umeh

Publication date: 10 October 2011

Published in: Classical and Quantum Gravity (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Smoothing over structures in general relativity leads to a renormalisation of the background, and potentially many other effects which are poorly understood. Observables such as the distance-redshift relation when averaged on the sky do not necessarily yield the same smooth model which arises when performing spatial averages. These issues are thought to be of technical interest only in the standard model of cosmology, giving only tiny corrections. However, when we try to calculate observable quantities such as the all-sky average of the distance-redshift relation, we find that perturbation theory delivers divergent answers in the UV and corrections to the background of order unity. There are further problems. Second-order perturbations are the same size as first-order, and fourth-order at least the same as second, and possibly much larger, owing to the divergences. Much hinges on a coincidental balance of 2 numbers: the primordial power, and the ratio between the comoving Hubble scales at matter-radiation equality and today. Consequently, it is far from obvious that backreaction is irrelevant even in the concordance model, however natural it intuitively seems.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1105.1886

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Exact solutions to problems in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C15) Approximation procedures, weak fields in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C25) Macroscopic interaction of the gravitational field with matter (hydrodynamics, etc.) (83C55) Relativistic cosmology (83F05)

Cited In (7)

• The averaging problem on the past null cone in inhomogeneous dust cosmologies
• Higher order relativistic galaxy number counts: dominating terms
• The Fitting Problem in a Lattice Universe
• On the convergence of cosmographic expansions in Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi models
• Vorticity generation in cosmology and the role of shell crossing
• Testing the equivalence principle on cosmological scales using the odd multipoles of galaxy cross-power spectrum and bispectrum
• Backreaction in cosmic screening approach

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