Using the Reduced Relativistic Gas (RRG) model, we analytically determine the matter power spectrum for Warm Dark Matter (WDM) on small scales, $k>1 htext{/Mpc}$. The RRG is a simplified model for the ideal relativistic gas, but very accurate in the
cosmological context. In another work, we have shown that, for typical allowed masses for dark matter particles, $m>5 text{keV}$, the higher order multipoles, $ell>2$, in the Einstein-Boltzmann system of equations are negligible on scales $k<10 htext{/Mpc}$. Hence, we can follow the perturbations of WDM using the ideal fluid framework, with equation of state and sound speed of perturbations given by the RRG model. We derive a Meszaros like equation for WDM and solve it analytically in radiation, matter and dark energy dominated eras. Joining these solutions, we get an expression that determines the value of WDM perturbations as a function of redshift and wavenumber. Then we construct the matter power spectrum and transfer function of WDM on small scales and compare it to some results coming from Lyman-$alpha$ forest observations. Besides being a clear and pedagogical analytical development to understand the evolution of WDM perturbations, our power spectrum results are consistent with the observations considered and the other determinations of the degree of warmness of dark matter particles.
The Reduced Relativistic Gas (RRG) is a simplified version of the ideal relativistic gas, which assumes that all particles have the same momentum magnitude. Although this is a very idealized situation, the resulting model preserves the phenomenology
of Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution and, in some situations, can be described as a perfect fluid, without introducing large errors in both cosmological background and first-order perturbations. The perfect fluid description of RRG model was already used to study the warmness of dark matter, massive neutrinos and interaction of baryons and photons before recombination, showing very good agreement with previous works based on the full Einstein-Boltzmann system of equations. In order to understand these results and construct a more general and formal framework for RRG, we develop a theoretical description of first-order cosmological perturbations of RRG, based on a distribution function which encodes the simplifying assumption that all particles have the same momentum magnitude. The full set of Einstein-Boltzmann equations for RRG distribution are derived and quantities beyond the perfect fluid approximation are studied. Using RRG to describe warm dark matter, we show that, for particles with $m sim text{keV}$, the perfect fluid approximation is valid on scales $k < 10, text{h}/text{Mpc}$, for most of the universe evolution. We also determine initial conditions for RRG in the early universe and study the evolution of potential in a toy model of universe composed only by RRG.
We study the impact of Early Dark Energy fluctuations in the linear and non-linear regimes of structure formation. In these models the energy density of dark energy is non-negligible at high redshifts and the fluctuations in the dark energy component
can have the same order of magnitude of dark matter fluctuations. Since two basic approximations usually taken in the standard scenario of quintessence models, that both dark energy density during the matter dominated period and dark energy fluctuations on small scales are negligible, are not valid in such models, we first study approximate analytical solutions for dark matter and dark energy perturbations in the linear regime. This study is helpful to find consistent initial conditions for the system of equations and to analytically understand the effects of Early Dark Energy and its fluctuations, which are also verified numerically. In the linear regime we compute the matter growth and variation of the gravitational potential associated with the Integrated Sachs-Wolf effect, showing that these observables present important modifications due to Early Dark Energy fluctuations, though making them more similar to $Lambda$CDM model. We also make use of the Spherical Collapse model to study the influence of Early Dark Energy fluctuations in the nonlinear regime of structure formation, especially on $delta_c$ parameter, and their contribution to the halo mass, which we show can be of the order of 10%. We finally compute how the number density of halos is modified in comparison to $Lambda$CDM model and address the problem of how to correct the mass function in order to take into account the contribution of clustered dark energy. We conclude that the inhomogeneous Early Dark Energy models are more similar to $Lambda$CDM model than its homogeneous counterparts.
