arXiv · 1210.1561
Effective perfect fluids in cosmology
Abstract
We describe the cosmological dynamics of perfect fluids within the framework of effective field theories. The effective action is a derivative expansion whose terms are selected by the symmetry requirements on the relevant long-distance degrees of freedom, which are identified with comoving coordinates. The perfect fluid is defined by requiring invariance of the action under internal volume-preserving diffeomorphisms and general covariance. At lowest order in derivatives, the dynamics is encoded in a single function of the entropy density that characterizes the properties of the fluid, such as the equation of state and the speed of sound. This framework allows a neat simultaneous description of fluid and metric perturbations. Longitudinal fluid perturbations are closely related to the adiabatic modes, while the transverse modes mix with vector metric perturbations as a consequence of vorticity conservation. This formalism features a large flexibility which can be of practical use for higher order perturbation theory and cosmological parameter estimation.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Guillermo Ballesteros, Brando Bellazzini. 2013-03-31. Effective perfect fluids in cosmology. https://doi.org/10.1088/1475-7516%2F2013%2F04%2F001
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.