English

A new duality relating density perturbations in expanding and contracting Friedmann cosmologies

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-09-15 v1 Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

For a 4-dimensional spatially-flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with a scalar field ϕ(x)\phi(x), potential V(ϕ)V(\phi) and constant equation of state w=p/ρw=p/\rho, we show that an expanding solution characterized by ϵ=3(1+w)/2\epsilon=3(1+w)/2 produces the same scalar perturbations as a contracting solution with ϵ^=1/ϵ\hat{\epsilon}=1/\epsilon. The same symmetry applies to both the dominant and subdominant scalar perturbation modes. This result admits a simple physical interpretation and generalizes to dd spacetime dimensions if we define ϵ[(2d5)+(d1)w]/(d2)\epsilon \equiv [(2d-5)+(d-1)w]/(d-2).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0403026,
  title  = {A new duality relating density perturbations in expanding and contracting Friedmann cosmologies},
  author = {Latham A. Boyle and Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0403026},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

9 pages, 2 figures, 1 table