No Arabic abstract
We derive for the first time the growth index of matter perturbations of the FLRW flat cosmological models in which the vacuum energy depends on redshift. A particularly well motivated model of this type is the so-called quantum field vacuum, in which apart from a leading constant term $Lambda_0$ there is also a $H^{2}$-dependence in the functional form of vacuum, namely $Lambda(H)=Lambda_{0}+3 u (H^{2}-H^{2}_{0})$. Since $| u|ll1$ this form endows the vacuum energy of a mild dynamics which affects the evolution of the main cosmological observables at the background and perturbation levels. Specifically, at the perturbation level we find that the growth index of the running vacuum cosmological model is $gamma_{Lambda_{H}} approx frac{6+3 u}{11-12 u}$ and thus it nicely extends analytically the result of the $Lambda$CDM model, $gamma_{Lambda}approx 6/11$.
We study how the cosmological constraints from growth data are improved by including the measurements of bias from Dark Energy Survey (DES). In particular, we utilize the biasing properties of the DES Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) and the growth data provided by the various galaxy surveys in order to constrain the growth index ($gamma$) of the linear matter perturbations. Considering a constant growth index we can put tight constraints, up to $sim 10%$ accuracy, on $gamma$. Specifically, using the priors of the Dark Energy Survey and implementing a joint likelihood procedure between theoretical expectations and data we find that the best fit value is in between $gamma=0.64pm 0.075$ and $0.65pm 0.063$. On the other hand utilizing the Planck priors we obtain $gamma=0.680pm 0.089$ and $0.690pm 0.071$. This shows a small but non-zero deviation from General Relativity ($gamma_{rm GR}approx 6/11$), nevertheless the confidence level is in the range $sim 1.3-2sigma$. Moreover, we find that the estimated mass of the dark-matter halo in which LRGs survive lies in the interval $sim 6.2 times 10^{12} h^{-1} M_{odot}$ and $1.2 times 10^{13} h^{-1} M_{odot}$, for the different bias models. Finally, allowing $gamma$ to evolve with redshift [Taylor expansion: $gamma(z)=gamma_{0}+gamma_{1}z/(1+z)$] we find that the $(gamma_{0},gamma_{1})$ parameter solution space accommodates the GR prediction at $sim 1.7-2.9sigma$ levels.
The cosmological term, $Lambda$, was introduced $104$ years ago by Einstein in his gravitational field equations. Whether $Lambda$ is a rigid quantity or a dynamical variable in cosmology has been a matter of debate for many years, especially after the introduction of the general notion of dark energy (DE). $Lambda$ is associated to the vacuum energy density, $rho_{rm vac}$, and one may expect that it evolves slowly with the cosmological expansion. Herein we present a devoted study testing this possibility using the promising class of running vacuum models (RVMs). We use a large string $SNIa+BAO+H(z)+LSS+CMB$ of modern cosmological data, in which for the first time the CMB part involves the full Planck 2018 likelihood for these models. We test the dependence of the results on the threshold redshift $z_*$ at which the vacuum dynamics is activated in the recent past and find positive signals up to $sim4.0sigma$ for $z_*simeq 1$. The RVMs prove very competitive against the standard $Lambda$CDM model and give a handle for solving the $sigma_8$ tension and alleviating the $H_0$ one.
A suitable nonlinear interaction between dark matter with an energy density $rho_{M}$ and dark energy with an energy density $rho_{X}$ is known to give rise to a non-canonical scaling $rho_{M} propto rho_{X}a^{-xi}$ where $xi$ is a parameter which generally deviates from $xi =3$. Here we present a covariant generalization of this class of models and investigate the corresponding perturbation dynamics. The resulting matter power spectrum for the special case of a time-varying Lambda model is compared with data from the SDSS DR9 catalogue. We find a best-fit value of $xi = 3.25$ which corresponds to a decay of dark matter into the cosmological term. Our results are compatible with the $Lambda$CDM model at the 2$sigma$ confidence level.
We study the dynamics of cosmological perturbations in models of dark matter based on ultralight coherent vector fields. Very much as for scalar field dark matter, we find two different regimes in the evolution: for modes with $k^2ll {cal H}ma$, we have a particle-like behaviour indistinguishable from cold dark matter, whereas for modes with $k^2gg {cal H}ma$, we get a wave-like behaviour in which the sound speed is non-vanishing and of order $c_s^2simeq k^2/m^2a^2$. This implies that, also in these models, structure formation could be suppressed on small scales. However, unlike the scalar case, the fact that the background evolution contains a non-vanishing homogeneous vector field implies that, in general, the evolution of the three kinds of perturbations (scalar, vector and tensor) can no longer be decoupled at the linear level. More specifically, in the particle regime, the three types of perturbations are actually decoupled, whereas in the wave regime, the three vector field perturbations generate one scalar-tensor and two vector-tensor perturbations in the metric. Also in the wave regime, we find that a non-vanishing anisotropic stress is present in the perturbed energy-momentum tensor giving rise to a gravitational slip of order $(Phi-Psi)/Phisim c_s^2$. Moreover in this regime the amplitude of the tensor to scalar ratio of the scalar-tensor modes is also $h/Phisim c_s^2$. This implies that small-scale density perturbations are necessarily associated to the presence of gravity waves in this model. We compare their spectrum with the sensitivity of present and future gravity waves detectors.
The fact that fast oscillating homogeneous scalar fields behave as perfect fluids in average and their intrinsic isotropy have made these models very fruitful in cosmology. In this work we will analyse the perturbations dynamics in these theories assuming general power law potentials $V(phi)=lambda vertphivert^{n}/n$. At leading order in the wavenumber expansion, a simple expression for the effective sound speed of perturbations is obtained $c_{text{eff}}^2 = omega=(n-2)/(n+2)$ with $omega$ the effective equation of state. We also obtain the first order correction in $k^2/omega_{text{eff}}^2$, when the wavenumber $k$ of the perturbations is much smaller than the background oscillation frequency, $omega_{text{eff}}$. For the standard massive case we have also analysed general anharmonic contributions to the effective sound speed. These results are reached through a perturbed version of the generalized virial theorem and also studying the exact system both in the super-Hubble limit, deriving the natural ansatz for $deltaphi$; and for sub-Hubble modes, exploiting Floquets theorem.