The inner structure of Zeldovich' pancakes

Abstract

The evolution of a planar perturbation in a Einstein-de Sitter Universe is studied using a previously introduced Lagrangian scheme. An approximate discrete dynamical system is derived, which describes the mass agglomeration process qualitatively. Quantitative predictions for the late density profile are obtained therefrom, and validated by numerical simulations. The main result is a scaling regime for the density profile of a collapsing object of mass $M$ around cosmological coordinate $r^*$, $ρ(r)\sim \frac{M}{d}(\frac{|r-r^*|}{d})^{-{1/4}}$. The characteristic scale of the agglomeration, $d\sim (t/t_0)^{4/9}$, is an increasing function of cosmological time $t$. The major part of the mass hence always lies in a region with decreasing mass density. This shows that one-dimensional self-gravitating motion is not sufficient to effectively drive structure formation in an Einstein-de Sitter Universe. These results are compared with analogous investigations for the adhesion model (Burgers equation with positive viscosity), where the agglomeration is faster, and one-dimensional dynamics is effective. We further study the mutual motion of two mass agglomerations, and show that they oscillate around each other for long times, like two ``heavy particles''. Individual particles in the two agglomerations do not mix effectively on the time scale of the interagglomeration motion.