Applied Mathematics of Space-time & Space+time: Problems in General Relativity and Cosmology

<p>Cosmography is the part of cosmology that proceeds by making minimal dynamic assumptions. That is, one does not assume the Friedmann equations (Einstein equations) unless and until absolutely necessary. On the other hand, cosmodynamics is the part of cosmology that relates the geometry to the density and pressure using the Friedmann equations. In both frameworks, we consider the amount of information and the nature of the constraints we can obtain from the Hubble flow in a FLRW universe. Indeed, the cosmological parameters contained in the Hubble relation between distance and redshift provide information on the behaviour of the universe (expansion, acceleration etc...). In the first framework, it is possible to concentrate more directly on the observational situation in a model-independent manner. We perform a number of inter-related cosmographic fits to supernova datasets, and pay particular attention to the extent to which the choice of distance scale and manner of representing the redshift scale affect the cosmological parameters. In the second framework, we use the class of w-parameter models which has become increasingly popular in the last decade. We explore the extent to which a constraint on the w-parameter leads to useful and non-trivial constraints on the Hubble flow in terms of cosmological parameters H(z), density p(z), density parameter O(z), distance scales d(z), and lookback time T(z). On another front, Numerical Relativity has experienced many breakthroughs since 2005, with full inspiral-merger-ringdown simulations now possible. One of the main goals is to provide very accurate templates of gravitational waves for ground-based and space-based interferometers. We explore the potential of a very recent and accurate numerical method, the Spectral Element Method (SEM), for Numerical Relativity, by treating a singular Schwarszchild black hole evolution as a test case. Spectral elements combine the theory of spectral and pseudo-spectral methods for high order polynomials and the variational formulation of finite elements and the associated geometric flexibility. We use the BSSN formulation of the Einstein equations with the method of the moving punctures. After applying the variational formulation to the BSSN system, we present several possible weak forms of this system and its spectral element discretization in space. We use a Runge-Kutta fourth order time discretization. The accuracy of high order methods can deteriorate in the presence of discontinuities or sharp gradients. We show that we can treat the element that contains the puncture with a filtering method to avoid artificial and spurious oscillations. These might form and propagate into the domain coming from discontinuous initial data from the BSSN system.</p>

Applied Mathematics of Space-time & Space+time: Problems in General Relativity and Cosmology

<p>Cosmography is the part of cosmology that proceeds by making minimal dynamic assumptions. That is, one does not assume the Friedmann equations (Einstein equations) unless and until absolutely necessary. On the other hand, cosmodynamics is the part of cosmology that relates the geometry to the density and pressure using the Friedmann equations. In both frameworks, we consider the amount of information and the nature of the constraints we can obtain from the Hubble flow in a FLRW universe. Indeed, the cosmological parameters contained in the Hubble relation between distance and redshift provide information on the behaviour of the universe (expansion, acceleration etc...). In the first framework, it is possible to concentrate more directly on the observational situation in a model-independent manner. We perform a number of inter-related cosmographic fits to supernova datasets, and pay particular attention to the extent to which the choice of distance scale and manner of representing the redshift scale affect the cosmological parameters. In the second framework, we use the class of w-parameter models which has become increasingly popular in the last decade. We explore the extent to which a constraint on the w-parameter leads to useful and non-trivial constraints on the Hubble flow in terms of cosmological parameters H(z), density p(z), density parameter O(z), distance scales d(z), and lookback time T(z). On another front, Numerical Relativity has experienced many breakthroughs since 2005, with full inspiral-merger-ringdown simulations now possible. One of the main goals is to provide very accurate templates of gravitational waves for ground-based and space-based interferometers. We explore the potential of a very recent and accurate numerical method, the Spectral Element Method (SEM), for Numerical Relativity, by treating a singular Schwarszchild black hole evolution as a test case. Spectral elements combine the theory of spectral and pseudo-spectral methods for high order polynomials and the variational formulation of finite elements and the associated geometric flexibility. We use the BSSN formulation of the Einstein equations with the method of the moving punctures. After applying the variational formulation to the BSSN system, we present several possible weak forms of this system and its spectral element discretization in space. We use a Runge-Kutta fourth order time discretization. The accuracy of high order methods can deteriorate in the presence of discontinuities or sharp gradients. We show that we can treat the element that contains the puncture with a filtering method to avoid artificial and spurious oscillations. These might form and propagate into the domain coming from discontinuous initial data from the BSSN system.</p>

Cosmological inflationary studying around the type IV singularity within f(T) gravity

In this paper, we investigate the effects of Type IV singularity through [Formula: see text] gravity description of inflationary Universe, where [Formula: see text] denotes the torsion scalar. With the Friedmann equations of the theory, we reconstruct a [Formula: see text] model according to a given Hubble rate susceptible to describe the inflationary era near the Type IV singularity. One obtains an interesting well-known [Formula: see text] model but with additional constant parameter [Formula: see text] staying as the Type IV singularity contribution. Moreover, we calculate the Hubble flow parameters in order to determine the dynamical evolution of the cosmological system. The results show that some of the Hubble flow parameters are small near the Type IV singularity and become singular at Type IV singularity, indicating that a dynamical instability of the cosmological system occurs at that point. This means that the dynamical cosmological evolution up to that point ceases to be the final attractor since the system is abruptly interrupted. Furthermore, by considering the [Formula: see text] trace anomaly equation, the previous result on the Type IV singularity is consolidated by the conditional instability coming from the de Sitter inflationary description of the reconstructed [Formula: see text] model. The model leads to instability strongly governed by the Type IV singularity parameter [Formula: see text] is viewed as the graceful exit from inflation. Our theoretical [Formula: see text] description based on slow-roll parameters not only confirms some observational data on spectral index and the scalar-to-tensor ratio from Planck data and BICEP[Formula: see text]/Keck-Array data, but also shows the property of [Formula: see text] gravity in describing the early and late-time evolution of our Universe.

Turnaround density as a probe of the cosmological constant

Spherical collapse predicts that a single value of the turnaround density, meaning the average matter density within the scale on which a structure detaches from the Hubble flow, characterizes all cosmic structures at the same redshift. It was recently shown by Korkidis et al. that this feature persists in complex non-spherical galaxy clusters that have been identified in N-body simulations. Here we show that the low-redshift evolution of the turnaround density constrains the cosmological parameters and it can be used to derive a local constraint on ΩΛ, 0 alone, independent of Ωm, 0. The turnaround density thus offers a promising new method for exploiting upcoming large cosmological datasets.

Cosmological perfect fluids in Gauss–Bonnet gravity

In a [Formula: see text]-dimensional Friedmann–Robertson–Walker metric, it is rigorously shown that any analytical theory of gravity [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the curvature scalar and [Formula: see text] is the Gauss–Bonnet topological invariant, can be associated to a perfect-fluid stress–energy tensor. In this perspective, dark components of the cosmological Hubble flow can be geometrically interpreted.

Constraining cluster masses from the stacked phase space distribution at large radii

Velocity dispersions have been employed as a method to measure masses of clusters. To complement this conventional method, we explore the possibility of constraining cluster masses from the stacked phase space distribution of galaxies at larger radii, where infall velocities are expected to have a sensitivity to cluster masses. First, we construct a two-component model of the three-dimensional phase space distribution of haloes surrounding clusters up to 50 $\, h^{-1}$ Mpc from cluster centres based on N-body simulations. We confirm that the three-dimensional phase space distribution shows a clear cluster mass dependence up to the largest scale examined. We then calculate the probability distribution function of pairwise line-of-sight velocities between clusters and haloes by projecting the three-dimensional phase space distribution along the line of sight with the effect of the Hubble flow. We find that this projected phase space distribution, which can directly be compared with observations, shows a complex mass dependence due to the interplay between infall velocities and the Hubble flow. Using this model, we estimate the accuracy of dynamical mass measurements from the projected phase space distribution at the transverse distance from cluster centres larger than $2\, h^{-1}$ Mpc. We estimate that, by using 1.5 × 105 spectroscopic galaxies, we can constrain the mean cluster masses with an accuracy of 14.5 per cent if we fully take account of the systematic error coming from the inaccuracy of our model. This can be improved down to 5.7 per cent by improving the accuracy of the model.

Comment on “Hubble flow variations as a test for inhomogeneous cosmology”

Saulder et al. (2019, A&A, 622, A83) have performed a novel observational test of the local expansion of the Universe for the standard cosmology as compared to an alternative model with differential cosmic expansion. Their analysis employs mock galaxy samples from the Millennium Simulation, a Newtonian N–body simulation on a ΛCDM background. For the differential expansion case the simulation has been deformed in an attempt to incorporate features of a particular inhomogeneous cosmology: the timescape model. It is shown that key geometrical features of the timescape cosmology have been omitted in this rescaling. Consequently, the differential expansion model tested by Saulder et al. (2019) cannot be considered to approximate the timescape cosmology.