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arXiv · 1604.06345

Cosmological backreaction in the presence of radiation and a cosmological constant

Viraj A. A. Sanghai·Timothy Clifton
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Abstract

We construct high-precision models of the Universe that contain radiation, a cosmological constant, and periodically distributed inhomogeneous matter. The density contrasts in these models are allowed to be highly non-linear, and the cosmological expansion is treated as an emergent phenomenon. This is achieved by employing a generalised version of the post-Newtonian formalism, and by joining together inhomogeneous regions of space-time at reflection symmetric junctions. Using these models, we find general expressions that precisely and unambiguously quantify the effect of small-scale inhomogeneity on the large-scale expansion of space (an effect referred to as "back-reaction", in the literature). We then proceed to specialize our models to the case where the matter fields are given by a regular array of point-like particles. This allows us to derive extremely simple expressions for the emergent Friedmann-like equations that govern the large-scale expansion of space. It is found that the presence of radiation tends to reduce the magnitude of back-reaction effects, while the existence of a cosmological constant has only a negligible effect.

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Viraj A. A. Sanghai, Timothy Clifton. 2016-04-21. Cosmological backreaction in the presence of radiation and a cosmological constant. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.94.023505

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