arXiv subjects

Syksy Rasanen

Publications and source records attributed to Syksy Rasanen.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Light propagation and the average expansion rate in near-FRW universes

We consider universes that are close to Friedmann-Robertson-Walker in the sense that metric perturbations, their time derivatives and first spatial derivatives are small, but second spatial derivatives are not constrained. We show that if we in addition assume that the observer four-velocity is close to its background value and close to the four-velocity which defines the hypersurface of averaging, the redshift and the average expansion rate remain close to the FRW case. However, this is not true for the angular diameter distance. The four-velocity assumption implies certain conditions on second derivatives of the metric and/or the matter content.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2012

Vacuum energy and dynamical symmetry breaking in curved spacetime

We argue that calculating vacuum energy requires quantum field theory whose axioms are adapted to curved spacetime. In this context, we suggest that non-zero vacuum energy is connected to dynamical breaking of electroweak symmetry. The observed meV scale can be understood in terms of electroweak physics via a naive estimate. The scenario requires all particle masses to have a dynamical origin. Any Higgs particle has to be a composite, and the origin of vacuum energy might be probed at the LHC.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

Backreaction: directions of progress

Homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models with ordinary matter and gravity predict slower expansion and shorter distances than observed. It is possible that this failure is due the known breakdown of homogeneity and isotropy related to structure formation, rather than new fundamental physics. We review this backreaction conjecture, concentrating on topics on which there has been progress as well as open issues.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Backreaction as an alternative to dark energy and modified gravity

The predictions of homogeneous and isotropic cosmological models with ordinary matter and gravity are off by a factor of two in the late universe. One possible explanation is the known breakdown of homogeneity and isotropy due to the formation of non-linear structures. We review how inhomogeneities affect the average expansion rate and can lead to acceleration, and consider a semi-realistic model where the observed timescale of ten billion years emerges from structure formation. We also discuss the relation between the average expansion rate and observed quantities.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Model-independent cosmological constraints from the CMB

We analyse CMB data in a manner which is as model-independent as possible. We encode the effects of late-time cosmology into a single parameter which determines the distance to the last scattering surface. We exclude low multipoles $\ell<40$ from the analysis. We consider the WMAP5 and ACBAR data. We obtain the cosmological parameters $100ω_b =2.13\pm 0.05$, $ω_c=0.124\pm 0.007$, $n_s=0.93\pm 0.02$ and $θ_A=0.593\pm 0.001$ degrees (68% C.L.). The last number is the angular scale subtended by the sound horizon at decoupling. There is a systematic shift in the parameters as more low $\ell$ data is omitted, towards smaller values of $ω_b$ and $n_s$ and larger values of $ω_c$. The scale $θ_A$ remains stable and very well determined.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Applicability of the linearly perturbed FRW metric and Newtonian cosmology

It has been argued that the effect of cosmological structure formation on the average expansion rate is negligible, because the linear approximation to the metric remains applicable in the regime of non-linear density perturbations. We discuss why the arguments based on the linear theory are not valid. We emphasise the difference between Newtonian gravity and the weak field, small velocity limit of general relativity in the cosmological setting.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

On the relation between the isotropy of the CMB and the geometry of the universe

The near-isotropy of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is considered to be the strongest indication for the homogeneity and isotropy of the universe, a cornerstone of most cosmological analysis. We derive new theorems which extend the Ehlers-Geren-Sachs result that an isotropic CMB implies that the universe is either stationary or homogeneous and isotropic, and its generalisation to the almost isotropic case. We discuss why the theorems do not apply to the real universe, and why the CMB observations do not imply that the universe would be nearly homogeneous and isotropic.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Fitting oscillating string gas cosmology to supernova data

In string gas cosmology, extra dimensions are stabilised by a gas of strings. In the matter-dominated era, competition between matter pushing the extra dimensions to expand and the string gas pulling them back can lead to oscillations of the extra dimensions and acceleration in the visible dimensions. We fit this model to supernova data, taking into account the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis constraint on the energy density of the string gas. The fit to the Union set of supernova data is acceptable, but the fit to the ESSENCE data is poor.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Light propagation in statistically homogeneous and isotropic dust universes

We derive the redshift and the angular diameter distance in rotationless dust universes which are statistically homogeneous and isotropic, but have otherwise arbitrary geometry. The calculation from first principles shows that the Dyer-Roeder approximation does not correctly describe the effect of clumping. Instead, the redshift and the distance are determined by the average expansion rate, the matter density today and the null geodesic shear. In particular, the position of the CMB peaks is consistent with significant spatial curvature provided the expansion history is sufficiently close to the spatially flat LambdaCDM model.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Structure formation as an alternative to dark energy and modified gravity

Observations are inconsistent with a homogeneous and isotropic universe with ordinary matter and gravity. The universe is far from exact homogeneity and isotropy at late times, and the effect of the non-linear structures has to be quantified before concluding that new physics is needed. We explain how structure formation can lead to accelerated expansion, and discuss a semi-realistic model where the timescale of the change in the expansion rate emerges from the physics of structure formation.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

The effect of structure formation on the expansion of the universe

Observations of the expansion rate of the universe at late times disagree by a factor of 1.5-2 with the prediction of homogeneous and isotropic models based on ordinary matter and gravity. We discuss how the departure from linearly perturbed homogeneity and isotropy due to structure formation could explain this discrepancy. We evaluate the expansion rate in a dust universe which contains non-linear structures with a statistically homogeneous and isotropic distribution. The expansion rate is found to increase relative to the exactly homogeneous and isotropic case by a factor of 1.1-1.3 at some tens of billion of years. The timescale follows from the cold dark matter transfer function and the amplitude of primordial perturbations without additional free parameters.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Evaluating backreaction with the peak model of structure formation

We evaluate the average expansion rate of a universe which contains a realistic evolving ensemble of non-linear structures. We use the peak model of structure formation to obtain the number density of structures, and take the individual structures to be spherical. The expansion rate increases relative to the FRW value on a timescale of 10-100 billion years, because the universe becomes dominated by fast-expanding voids. However, the increase is not rapid enough to correspond to acceleration. We discuss how to improve our treatment. We also consider various qualitative issues related to backreaction.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

Lovelock inflation and the number of large dimensions

We discuss an inflationary scenario based on Lovelock terms. These higher order curvature terms can lead to inflation when there are more than three spatial dimensions. Inflation will end if the extra dimensions are stabilised, so that at most three dimensions are free to expand. This relates graceful exit to the number of large dimensions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Comment on ``Nontrivial Geometries: Bounds on the Curvature of the Universe''

The paper 0705.0332v1 seeks to study the effect of non-trivial spatial curvature in homogeneous and isotropic models. We note that the space considered is not homogeneous, and that the equations of motion used are inconsistent with the metric. Also, we explain why the spatial curvature of homogeneous and isotropic spacetimes always evolves like 1/a^2, contrary to the central assumption of 0705.0332v1.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Can extragalactic foregrounds explain the large-angle CMB anomalies?

We address the effect of an extended local foreground on the low-l anomalies found in the CMB. Recent X-ray catalogues point us to the existence of very massive superstructures at the 100 h^(-1) Mpc scale that contribute significantly to the dipole velocity profile. Being highly non-linear, these structures provide us a natural candidate to leave an imprint on the CMB sky via a local Rees-Sciama effect. We show that the Rees-Sciama effect of local foregrounds can induce CMB anisotropy of DeltaT/T ~ 10^(-5) and we analyse its impact on multipole power as well as the induced phase pattern on largest angular scales.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Accelerated expansion from structure formation

We discuss the physics of backreaction-driven accelerated expansion. Using the exact equations for the behaviour of averages in dust universes, we explain how large-scale smoothness does not imply that the effect of inhomogeneity and anisotropy on the expansion rate is small. We demonstrate with an analytical toy model how gravitational collapse can lead to acceleration. We find that the conjecture of the accelerated expansion being due to structure formation is in agreement with the general observational picture of structures in the universe, and more quantitative work is needed to make a detailed comparison.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Cosmological acceleration from structure formation

We discuss the Buchert equations, which describe the average expansion of an inhomogeneous dust universe. In the limit of small perturbations, they reduce to the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker equations. However, when the universe is very inhomogeneous, the behaviour can be qualitatively different from the FRW case. In particular, the average expansion rate can accelerate even though the local expansion rate decelerates everywhere. We clarify the physical meaning of this paradoxical feature with a simple toy model, and demonstrate how acceleration is intimately connected with gravitational collapse. This provides a link to structure formation, which in turn has a preferred time around the era when acceleration has been observed to start.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2006

Microwave sky and the local Rees-Sciama effect

The microwave sky shows unexpected features at the largest angular scales, among them the alignments of the dipole, quadrupole and octopole. Motivated by recent X-ray cluster studies, we investigate the possibility that local structures at the 100 h^(-1) Mpc scale could be responsible for such correlations. These structures give rise to a local Rees-Sciama contribution to the microwave sky that may amount to Delta T/T ~ 10^(-5) at the largest angular scales. We model local structures by a spherical overdensity (Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi model) and assume that the Local Group is falling toward the centre. We superimpose the local Rees-Sciama effect on a statistically isotropic, gaussian sky. As expected we find alignments among low multipoles, but a closer look reveals that they do not agree with the type of correlations revealed by the data.

astro-ph↗