Lecture 2.

Perturbation theory in general relativity I

Dmitry Podolsky

Electronic address: dmitry.podolsky@helsinki.fi; URL: http://theory.physics.helsinki.fi/~inf/

Before turning to the discussion of the perturbation theory in general relativity, let me briey remind the outline of the previous lecture. As we have found, the newtonian perturbation theory works at relatively small scales (much less than hundred of MPcs), but predicts exponential growth of infrared adiabiatic modes. We have concluded that a) our description of IR physics is incomplete, and b) nonlinear interactions between Fourier modes should be taken into account at t . Nonlinearities stop exponential growth of IR adiabatic modes at later times, even if we describe IR physics by means of Newtonian perturbation theory. However, in this case IR modes k become large too rapidly. At the next step we took expansion of the Universe into account (the later leads to a noticeable change of physics only at large scales the ones we were exactly after) and found that the exponential growth of IR adiabatic modes is replaced by the much slower polynomial growth. Thus, we, from one hand, somewhat cured tachyonic instability of the newtonian linear perturbation theory. On the other hand, we have qualitatively explained the LSS of the universe at subhrizon scales (see the previous Lecture). Nevertheless, even taking the expansion of the universe into account, we did not treat the physics of IR modes in completely satisfactory manner: by heart, we know that general relativity is necessary to properly explain the large scale structure of the Universe but not a single bit of it was used in the discussion so far[5]. So, where was the ow in our logic? In fact, there were several ows. As we will see later, all of them are interrelated. 1. The physical coordinate x = a(t)q srinks at t 0 (since a(t 0) 0). It means that in the very beginning of its evolution the Universe was supposed to be very small or, in other words, its curvature was very large. 2. If one interpolates the present scale of inhomogeneities to the past, one nds that in the early universe
0

was very small. Why this was the case realized in our Universe?

To explain all the features in the observable Universe, one has not only to construct equations describing the evolution of the perturbations, but to nd and explain initial conditions for them. 3. Knowing GR, we remember that the curvature scale of the space-time is R H 2 . Therefore, at scales l lH H 2 or, in the other words, ar superhorizon scales

eects of GR should be taken into account.

4. Dynamics of superhorizon modes is not completely decoupled from the dynamics of subhorizon ones. The reason is that in the universe lled with a uid (having the equation of state p0 = w0 with w < 1) superhorizon modes reenter the horizon. Indeed, the horizon size behaves as H 1 t, while the physical walength of the cosmological perturbations behaves as
a k

t 3(1+w) .

Exercise 2.1. Try to construct the cosmological model (universe lled with an ideal uid) when the opposite happens, and subhorizon modes leave the horizon. What is the eective equation of state of the uid?

As we see, to properly treat the IR superhorizon modes, one needs a description in terms of general relativity. It is clear that analysis of perturbation theory in GR is going to be much more complicated. Indeed, in the newtonian analysis (and its extension for the case of expanding Universe) the gravitational eld was only descibed by the potential . Instead, in general relativity metric desciribing behavior of space-time is 2 2 tensor, containing several possible modes. There is another important issue explaining why it is hard to get as clear picture in the general relativity as the one emerged from the newtonian perturbation theory analysis: the issue of gauge invariance. Let us suppose that we live in a unperturbed universe lled with perfect uid with energy density 0 (t). If one makes a coordinate transformation t = t + t(t, x), one nds that the
0 (t ) energy density prole changes as 0 (t t(t, x)) 0 (t ) t t(t , x) and it looks like

we have an inhomogeneity in the new coordinate system. This inhomogeneity is however nothing but a gauge artifact the uid remains homogeneous as seen in the properly chosen coordinate system (original one in our case). To nd physical modes of cosmological perturbations, we need both metric and matter degrees of freedom. Let us now describe them in more details.

A.

Classifying modes of gravitational perturbations

In the linear approximation, the disturbed invariant interval can be written as

(0) ds2 = (g ( ) + g (, x))dx dx ,

where the background contibution is dened by the Friedman-Robertson metric

2 2 2 (0) ds2 0 = g ( )dx dx = a ( )(d dx )

(note that we use conformal time related to the world time t according to dt = a( )d ). The background is invariant with respect to 3-dimensional coordinate transformations (rotations, rescalings, etc.), and it is convenient to use this invariance to classify the possible modes of metric perturbations. First of all, we notice that g00 (, x) is transformed as a 3-scalar with respect to the 3-dimensional coordinate transformations, so one can introduce the scalar mode present in the perturbed metric according to g00 (, x) = 2a2 ( )(, x). Therefore, there is one degree of freedom in g00 (, x). Mixed components of the metric g0i (, x) contain both 3-scalar mode B and 3-vector mode Si dened according to the prescription g0i (, x) = a2 ( )(B,i + Si ). (2) (1)

It is convinient to choose the vector perturbation Si to be divergence free, i.e., S;ii = 0. If Si i + ,i , where is not divergence free, it is always possible to represent it in the form Si = S i is divergence free and is a 3-scalar, which can be absorbed into B . Thus, there are 3 S degrees of freedom in g0i (, x): one scalar mode and two components of the vector mode. Finally, the spatial components of the metric gij (, x) contain two scalar modes and E , vector mode Fi and tensor mode hij dened as gij (, x) = a2 ( )(2 (, x)ij + 2E,i;j (, x) + Fi;j (, x) + Fj ;i (, x) + hij (, x)). Again, it is convinient to choose the 3-vector Fi to be divergence free (othervise, the remaining scalar part can be absorbed into the denition of ) and the 3-tensor hij to satisfy the constraints
;j hi i = 0, hij = 0.

The rst constraint means that the tensor mode is traceless (if it is not, we can always make it traceless by the redenition of ) and the second constraint that the tensor mode is transverse (if it is not, we can make it transverse redening the 3-vector F ). As we see, 4

spatial components gij (, x) of the metric tensor contain 6 independent modes: 2 scalars, 2 vector modes and 2 tensor modes. The overall number of independent modes is 10, as it should be for a metric tensor describing a general 4-dimensional space-time. However, we know that not all of these modes are physical, since one can choose a coordinate system she likes. We will return to the discussion of physical modes in the next Sections.

Exercise 2.2. Reproduce the same analysis for the perturbations near d-dimensional FRW background. How many scalar, vector and tensor modes exist in this case?

Exercise 2.3. Consider a 10-dimensional space-time with metric ds2 = e2A(r) (dt2 + dx2 ) + e2A(r) (dr2 + r2 d2 5 ), where (t, x) are coordinates of 4-dimensional world and d2 5 is the metric of a 5-dimensional sphere. Metrics of this form appear in warped compactications of the string theory. Classify possible metric perturbations in this system. What are the possible modesof cosmological perturbations for an observer leaving in the 4-dimensional slice of the 10-dimensional world?

At the linear level of the perturbation theory scalar, vector and tensor modes do not interact with each other and can be treated separately. Scalar modes are the most interesting ones since, similar to the Newtonian perturbation theory, they lead to IR instabilities. Vector modes rapidly decay (as a1 ) in the expanding Universe and inuence its dynamics only at later stages, when perturbations enter the nonlinear regime. In particular, vector perturbations are responsible for the rotation of galaxies. Finally, tensor perturbations describe gravitational waves and do not aect the large scale structure.

B.

Gauge transformations

Let us now consider how the metric modes change under coordinate transformations. We introduce an innitesimal (i.e., 0) coordinate transformation x = x + (x ), (3)

under which the metric tensor is transformed as x x (0) (0) (0) g ( x) = g (x) g (x) + g g ; g ; = x x =g ( x) + g ( x). Therefore, g = g g, g ; g ; .
(0) (0) (0) (0)

Exercise 2.4. What is the origin of the second term in the right hand side?
i i Let us represent the 3-component of the 4-vector in the form i = df + ,i , where df

is the divergence free part of i . Than, one has g 00 = g00 2a(a 0 ) , g 0 = g0i + a2 (df ;i + ( 0 ),i ), a g ij = gij + a2 2 ij 0 + 2;ij + (df i;j + df j ;i ) , a where prime denotes derivative with respect to conformal time . Now one can understand how various modes present in metric are transformed under (3). We start with scalar modes. Their contribution into the overall perturbed metric is given by ds2 = a2 (1 + 2)d 2 + 2B,i ddxi ((1 2 )ij 2E;ij ) dxi dxj , so one nds nd that = 1 (a 0 ) , = + a 0, a a 0 =B+ , E =E+ B

Exercise 2.5. Check these transformation rules.

Exercise 2.6. Construct scalars which do not change under (3).

Similarly, vector modes give the following contributions into the overall metric: ds2 = a2 d 2 + 2Si ddxi (ij Fi;j Fj ;i ) dxi dxj , 6

and one has for the vector perturbations i = Si + df i , F i = Fi + df i . S

Exercise 2.7. Construct vector which does not change under (3).

Finally, one can nd that the tensor mode hij does not change under coordinate transformations (3).

C.

Important gauges

Discussing various possible gauges, we will focus our attention on scalar perturbations, because these are the ones the most inuenced by the choice of the gauge. a) Synchronous gauge Since in 4-dimensional world we are allowed to do four coordinate transformations, by these transofrmations we can always choose g00 = 1, g0i = 0, which can be recast in the form = 0, B = 0 using scalar modes we introduced in the previous subsection. The resulting metric will look like ds2 = dt2 ij (t, x)dxi dxj , where dt = ad . The gauge dened by the conditions (4) is called synchronous, since in this gauge clocks everywhere in the universe (or, more accurately, in a given Hubble patch) are synchronized. Conditions (4) do not x the gauge completely, because there freedom remains to make arbitrary 3-dimensional coordinate transformations. b) Longitudinal (or newtonian) gauge. This gauge is xed by the conditions B = 0, E = 0, 7 (4)

so that the metric looks like ds2 = a2 (1 + 2)d 2 a2 (1 2 )ij dxi dxj .
j If Tij i , the scalar modes and coinside. The variable in this gauge reduces to the

Newtonian potential in the non-relativistic limit.

Problem: coordinate transformations between synchronous and longituinal gauges

Transformation from synchronous to longitudinal gauge. Show that the corresponding coordinate transformation is given by

ij i l = s + Es , xi l = xs + Es;j .

Show that scalar modes are transformed according to a a l = Es Es , l = s + Es . a a Transformation from longitudinal to synchronous gauge. Show that the corresponding coordinate transformation is 1 d i i ij d al , xs = xl + d al s = l + a a and scalar modes are transformed as a d s = l + 2 d al , Es = d al . a a

;j

[1] R. Brandenberger, Topics in cosmology, PoS P2GC, 007 (2006) [arXiv:hep-th/0701157]. [2] V.F. Mukhanov, H.A. Feldman and R.H. Brandenberger, Theory of cosmological perturbations. Part 1. Classical perturbations. Part 2. Quantum theory of perturbations. Part 3. Extensions, Phys. Rept. 215, 203 (1992). [3] V. Mukhanov, Physical foundations of cosmology, Cambridge University Press, 2005. [4] Andrew L. Liddle and David H. Lyth, Cosmological ination and large-scale structure, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

[5] Although note that we derived the Freedman equation (??) from the Poisson equation for the gravitational potential and the equation of motion for 0 . As we know, this equation is a combination of (0, 0)- and (, )-components of the Einstein equations.