Paper 2, Section I, D

Cosmology | Part II, 2013

The linearised equation for the growth of small inhomogeneous density perturbations δk\delta_{\mathbf{k}} with comoving wavevector k\mathbf{k} in an isotropic and homogeneous universe is

δ¨k+2a˙aδ˙k+(cs2k2a24πGρ)δk=0\ddot{\delta}_{\mathbf{k}}+2 \frac{\dot{a}}{a} \dot{\delta}_{\mathbf{k}}+\left(\frac{c_{s}^{2} k^{2}}{a^{2}}-4 \pi G \rho\right) \delta_{\mathbf{k}}=0

where ρ\rho is the matter density, cs=(dP/dρ)1/2c_{s}=(d P / d \rho)^{1 / 2} is the sound speed, PP is the pressure, a(t)a(t) is the expansion scale factor of the unperturbed universe, and overdots denote differentiation with respect to time tt.

Define the Jeans wavenumber and explain its physical meaning.

Assume the unperturbed Friedmann universe has zero curvature and cosmological constant and it contains only zero-pressure matter, so that a(t)=a0t2/3a(t)=a_{0} t^{2 / 3}. Show that the solution for the growth of density perturbations is given by

δk=A(k)t2/3+B(k)t1\delta_{\mathbf{k}}=A(\mathbf{k}) t^{2 / 3}+B(\mathbf{k}) t^{-1}

Comment briefly on the cosmological significance of this result.

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