arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Matej Škovran.
We construct explicit solutions for scalar, vector and tensor perturbations in a less known setting, a flat universe filled by an isotropic elastic solid with pressure and shear modulus proportional to energy density. The solutions generalize the well known formulas for cosmological perturbations in a universe filled by ideal fluid.
Evolution of scalar perturbations in a universe containing solid matter with positive pressure is studied. Solution for pure solid is found and matched with solution for ideal fluid, including the case when the pressure to energy density ratio $w$ has a jump. Two classes of solutions are explored in detail, solutions with radiation-like solid ($w = 1/3$) and solutions with stiff solid ($w > 1/3$) appearing in a universe filled with radiation. For radiation-like solid, an almost flat spectrum of large-scale perturbations is obtained only if the shear stress to energy density ratio $ξ$ is close to zero, $|ξ| \lesssim 10^{-5}$. For a solid with stiff equation of state, large-scale perturbations are enhanced for $ξ$ negative and suppressed for $ξ$ positive. If the solid dominated the dynamics of the universe long enough, perturbations could end up suppressed as much as by several orders of magnitude, and in order that the inclination of the large-scale spectrum is consistent with observations, radiation must have prevailed over the solid long enough before recombination. In Newtonian gauge, corrections to metric and energy density are typically much greater than 1 in the first period after the shear stress appears, but the linearized theory is still applicable because the corrections stay small when one uses the proper-time comoving gauge.
Evolution of large-scale scalar perturbations in the presence of stiff solid (solid with pressure to energy density ratio > 1/3) is studied. If the solid dominated the dynamics of the universe long enough, the perturbations could end up suppressed by as much as several orders of magnitude. To avoid too steep large-angle power spectrum of CMB, radiation must have prevailed over the solid long enough before recombination.
We compute the power in the lowest multipoles of CMB anisotropies in the presence of radiation-like solid, a hypothetical new kind of radiation with nonzero shear modulus. If only the ordinary Sachs-Wolfe effect is taken into account, the shear modulus to energy density ratio must be in absolute value of order $10^{-5}$ or less for the theory to be consistent with observations within cosmic variance. With the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect switched on, the constraint is relaxed almost by two orders of magnitude.