Usually the effects of isotropic inhomogeneities are not seriously taken into account in the determination of the cosmological parameters because of Copernican principle whose statement is that we do not live in the privileged domain in the universe. But Copernican principle has not been observationally confirmed yet in sufficient accuracy, and there is the possibility that there are non-negligible large-scale isotropic inhomogeneities in our universe. In this paper, we study the effects of the isotropic inhomogeneities on the determination of the cosmological parameters and show the probability that non-Copernican isotropic inhomogeneities mislead us into believing, for example, the phantom energy of the equation of state, $p=wrho$ with $w<-1$, even in case that $w=-1$ is the true value.
We investigate the effect of small scale inhomogeneities on standard candle observations, such as type Ia supernovae (SNe) observations. Existence of the small scale inhomogeneities may cause a tension between SNe observations and other observations with larger diameter sources, such as the cosmic microwave background (CMB) observation. To clarify the impact of the small scale inhomogeneities, we use the Dyer-Roeder approach. We determined the smoothness parameter $alpha(z)$ as a function of the redshift $z$ so as to compensate the deviation of cosmological parameters for SNe from those for CMB. The range of the deviation which can be compensated by the smoothness parameter $alpha(z)$ satisfying $0leqalpha(z)leq1$ is reported. Our result suggests that the tension may give us the information of the small scale inhomogeneities through the smoothness parameter.
We consider a test of the Copernican Principle through observations of the large-scale structures, and for this purpose we study the self-gravitating system in a relativistic huge void universe model which does not invoke the Copernican Principle. If we focus on the the weakly self-gravitating and slowly evolving system whose spatial extent is much smaller than the scale of the cosmological horizon in the homogeneous and isotropic background universe model, the cosmological Newtonian approximation is available. Also in the huge void universe model, the same kind of approximation as the cosmological Newtonian approximation is available for the analysis of the perturbations contained in a region whose spatial size is much smaller than the scale of the huge void: the effects of the huge void are taken into account in a perturbative manner by using the Fermi-normal coordinates. By using this approximation, we derive the equations of motion for the weakly self-gravitating perturbations whose elements have relative velocities much smaller than the speed of light, and show the derived equations can be significantly different from those in the homogeneous and isotropic universe model, due to the anisotropic volume expansion in the huge void. We linearize the derived equations of motion and solve them. The solutions show that the behaviors of linear density perturbations are very different from those in the homogeneous and isotropic universe model.
We study the two-point correlation function of density perturbations in a spherically symmetric void universe model which does not employ the Copernican principle. First we solve perturbation equations in the inhomogeneous universe model and obtain density fluctuations by using a method of non-linear perturbation theory which was adopted in our previous paper. From the obtained solutions, we calculate the two-point correlation function and show that it has a local anisotropy at the off-center position differently from those in homogeneous and isotropic universes. This anisotropy is caused by the tidal force in the off-center region of the spherical void. Since no tidal force exists in homogeneous and isotropic universes, we may test the inhomogeneous universe by observing statistical distortion of the two-point galaxy correlation function.
We consider the femto-lensing due to a cosmic string. If a cosmic string with the deficit angle $Deltasim 100$ [femto-arcsec] $sim10^{-18}$ [rad] exists around the line of sight to a gamma-ray burst, we may observe characteristic interference patterns caused by gravitational lensing in the energy spectrum of the gamma-ray burst. This femto-lensing event was first proposed as a tool to probe small mass primordial black holes. In this paper, we propose use of the femto-lensing to probe cosmic strings with extremely small tension. Observability conditions and the event rate are discussed. Differences between the cases of a point mass and a cosmic string are presented.
We study the evolution of linear density perturbations in a large spherical void universe which accounts for the acceleration of the cosmic volume expansion without introducing dark energy. The density contrast of this void is not large within the light cone of an observer at the center of the void. Therefore, we describe the void structure as a perturbation with a dimensionless small parameter $kappa$ in a homogeneous and isotropic universe within the region observable for the observer. We introduce additional anisotropic perturbations with a dimensionless small parameter $epsilon$, whose evolution is of interest. Then, we solve perturbation equations up to order $kappa epsilon$ by applying second-order perturbation theory in the homogeneous and isotropic universe model. By this method, we can know the evolution of anisotropic perturbations affected by the void structure. We show that the growth rate of the anisotropic density perturbations in the large void universe is significantly different from that in the homogeneous and isotropic universe. This result suggests that the observation of the distribution of galaxies may give a strong constraint on the large void universe model.
Lensing effects on light rays from point light sources, such like Type Ia supernovae, are simulated in a clumpy universe model. In our universe model, it is assumed that all matter in the universe takes the form of randomly distributed objects each of which has finite size and is transparent for light rays. Monte-Carlo simulations are performed for several lens models, and we compute probability distribution functions of magnification. In the case of the lens models that have a smooth density profile or the same degree of density concentration as the spherical NFW (Navarro-Frenk-White) lens model at the center, the so-called gamma distributions fit well the magnification probability distribution functions if the size of lenses is sufficiently larger than the Einstein radius. In contrast, the gamma distributions do not fit the magnification probability distribution functions in the case of the SIS (Singular Isothermal Sphere) lens model. We find, by using the power law cusp model, that the magnification probability distribution function is fitted well using the gamma distribution only when the slope of the central density profile is not very steep. These results suggest that we may obtain information about the slope of the central density profiles of dark matter halo from the lensing effect of Type Ia supernovae.
Using the numerical method, we study dynamics of coalescing black holes on the Eguchi-Hanson base space. Effects of a difference in spacetime topology on the black hole dynamics is discussed. We analyze appearance and disappearance process of marginal surfaces. In our calculation, the area of a coverall black hole horizon at the creation time in the coalescing black holes solutions on Eguchi-Hanson space is larger than that in the five-dimensional Kastor-Traschen solutions. This fact suggests that the black hole production on the Eguchi-Hanson space is easier than that on the flat space.
