Perturbations in Lemaitre-Tolman-Bondi and Assisted Coupled Quintessence Cosmologies
Abstract
In this thesis we present research into linear perturbations in Lema^ tre-Tolman-
Bondi (LTB) and Assisted Coupled Quintessence (ACQ) Cosmologies. First we
give a brief overview of the standard model of cosmology. We then introduce
Cosmological Perturbation Theory (CPT) at linear order for a
at Friedmann-
Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmology. Next we study linear perturbations to a
Lema^ tre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) background spacetime. Studying the transformation
behaviour of the perturbations under gauge transformations, we construct gauge invariant
quantities in LTB. We show, using the perturbed energy conservation equation,
that there is a conserved quantitiy in LTB which is conserved on all scales.
We then brie
y extend our discussion to the Lema^ tre spacetime, and construct
gauge-invariant perturbations in this extension of LTB spacetime.
We also study the behaviour of linear perturbations in assisted coupled quintessence
models in a FRWbackground. We provide the full set of governing equations for this
class of models, and solve the system numerically. The code written for this purpose
is then used to evolve growth functions for various models and parameter values,
and we compare these both to the standard CDM model and to current and future
observational bounds. We also examine the applicability of the \small scale approximation",
often used to calculate growth functions in quintessence models, in light of
upcoming experiments such as SKA and Euclid. We nd the results of the full equations
deviates from the approximation by more than the experimental uncertainty
for these future surveys. The construction of the numerical code, Pyessence, written
in Python to solve the system of background and perturbed evolution equations
for assisted coupled quintessence, is also discussed.
Authors
Leithes, AlexanderCollections
- Theses [4116]