arXiv subjects

Robert Vanderwee

Publications and source records attributed to Robert Vanderwee.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Realisations of type III stress-energy tensors of the Hawking-Ellis classification in scalar-tensor gravity

The ``ugly duckling'' of the Segr\'e-Pleba\'nski-Hawking-Ellis classification of stress-energy tensors is believed to be either impossible or extremely difficult to realise in Einstein gravity. Effective stress-energy tensors in alternative gravity offer a wider range of possibilities. We report a class of type III realisations in ``first-generation'' scalar-tensor and in Horndeski gravity, and their physical interpretation. The ugly duckling may be a freak of nature of limited importance but it is not physically impossible.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2023

Tolman-Ehrenfest's criterion of thermal equilibrium extended to conformally static spacetimes

With insight from examples and physical arguments, the Tolman-Ehrenfest criterion of thermal equilibrium for test fluids in static spacetimes is extended to local thermal equilibrium in conformally static geometries. The temperature of the conformally rescaled fluid scales with the inverse of the conformal factor, reproducing the evolution of the cosmic microwave background in Friedmann universes, the Hawking temperature of the Sultana-Dyer cosmological black hole, and a heuristic argument by Dicke.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Scalar field as a perfect fluid: thermodynamics of minimally coupled scalars and Einstein frame scalar-tensor gravity

We revisit the analogy between a minimally coupled scalar field in general relativity and a perfect fluid, correcting previous identifications of effective temperature and chemical potential. This provides a useful complementary picture for the first-order thermodynamics of scalar-tensor gravity, paving the way for the Einstein frame formulation (which eluded previous attempts) and raises interesting questions to further develop the analogy.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker cosmology through the lens of gravitoelectromagnetism

Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker cosmology is examined from the point of view of gravitoelectromagnetism, in the approximation of spacetime regions small in comparison with the Hubble radius. The usual Lorentz gauge is not appropriate for this situation, while the Painlev\'e-Gullstrand gauge is rather natural. Several non-trivial features and differences with respect to "standard" asymptotically flat gravitoelectromagnetism are discussed.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Revisiting geodesic observers in cosmology

Geodesic observers in cosmology are revisited. The coordinates based on freely falling observers introduced by Gautreau in de Sitter and Einstein-de Sitter spaces (and, previously, by Gautreau and Hoffmann in Schwarzschild space) are extended to general FLRW universes. We identify situations in which the relation between geodesic and comoving coordinates can be expressed explicitly in terms of elementary functions. In general, geodesic coordinates in cosmology turn out to be rather cumbersome and limited to the region below the apparent horizon.

gr-qc↗