English

Back-Reaction of Cosmological Perturbations in the Infinite Wavelength Approximation

High Energy Physics - Theory 2007-05-23 v1 Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology

Abstract

Cosmological perturbations in an expanding universe back-react on the space-time in which they propagate. Calculations to lowest non-vanishing order in perturbation theory indicate that super-Hubble-scale fluctuations act as a negative and time-dependent cosmological constant and may thus lead to a dynamical relaxation mechanism for the cosmological constant. Here we present a simple model of how to understand this effect from the perspective of homogeneous and isotropic cosmology. Our analysis, however, also shows that an effective spatial curvature is induced, indicating potential problems in realizing the dynamical relaxation of the cosmological constant by means of back-reaction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0407048,
  title  = {Back-Reaction of Cosmological Perturbations in the Infinite Wavelength Approximation},
  author = {Robert H. Brandenberger and C. S. Lam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0407048},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

5 pages, no figures