General Astrophysics 1 - Tutorial 5 - Perturbations and horizons

Ron Zheleznykov
April 2023

1 Perturbations outside the horizon

You can find the following derivation at Kolb & Turner in chapter 9.3.6. In the lecture you discussed the Jeans
perturbations in our Universe at early times, when it was radiation dominated. You saw that these perturbations
grow outside the horizon, but get stabilized and oscillate once they enter the horizon. Remember that we can
inspect what’s going on inside a ball (inside the horizon) while not caring about any outside density, thanks to
Birkhoff’s theorem. In turn, the Friedmann equations describe the interior of this ball (our Universe). Let’s see
how these perturbations grow outside the horizon: Consider a Universe of negligible curvature and dark energy,
so FI is written as
8πG
H2 = ρ0 . (1)
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Now, consider a perturbation, namely a new Universe, a slightly larger density ρ1 . The spherical perturbation
evolves as if it were a separate Universe, so it must satisfy its own FI equation. However, as this perturbation
lives inside the unperturbed Universe, we must match the two regions by requiring that they have the same scale
factor a(t), and hence also the same expantion rate H (this is called the uniform Hubble-flow condition). Try to
write an FI equation with the same H but with a larger ρ: you are forced to inroduce a positive, k > 0 curvature
term1 :
8πG kc2
H2 = ρ1 − 2 2 . (2)
3 r0 a
The value of kc2 /(r02 a2 ) is fixed once ρ0 and ρ1 are given at any initial time. Subsequently, the evolutions of ρ0
and ρ1 are entirely determined by equations 1 and 2, so we obtain the contrast evolution:

ρ1 − ρ0 3kc2 1
δ≡ = · . (3)
ρ0 8πGr02 a2 ρ0

In a matter dominated Universe ρ0 ∝ a−3 , a ∝ t2/3 , and in a radiation dominated Universe ρ0 ∝ a−4 , a ∝ t1/2 ,
so we can calculate
( (
a−2 a2 , Radiation dominated t, Radiation dominated
δ∝ = ∝ 2/3 . (4)
ρ0 a, Matter dominated t , Matter dominated

1 Note that choosing ρ1 < ρ0 would require k < 0, but lead to the same growth rate below.

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2 A photon’s journey (BOB 29.48)
1. Find the comoving distance of a photon just now arriving from the present particle horizon in a flat, matter
dominated Universe.
2. Find the maximum proper distance of the photon during its journey. Express your answer as a fraction of
the model’s present particle horizon2 , dh,0 = 3ct0 . At what time (t/t0 ) is the photon at this distance?

Solution:
1. Beginning with the Robertson-Walker metric, setting ds = 0 for a light ray, dθ = dϕ = 0 for the radial
distance, and k = 0 for a flat universe, we find
c dt
dr = , (5)
a(t)
re t
c dt′
Z Z
dr′ = , (6)
r 0 0)
2/3 (t′ /t
 1/3
t
r = re − 3ct0 . (7)
t0
Note that this is a descending function of comoving distance, so at t = 0 the photon is at the comoving
distance r = re away from us, and at t = t0 it arrives with r = 0. Therefore, we can compute that
re = 3ct0 , which is just the present horizon distance, dh,0 . Thus,
"  1/3 #
t
r = 3ct0 1 − . (8)
t0

2. For a flat universe, the proper distance is d(t) = a(t)r. To find a(t) we use FI:
 2
1 da 8πGρ0
= , (9)
a dt 3a3
2

da 8πGρ0
= , (10)
dt 3a
Z a√ r
8πGρ0 t ′
Z Z t
′
′
a da = dt = H0 dt′ , (11)
0 3 0 0
 2/3  2/3
3 t
a(t) = , (12)
2 tH
where tH ≡ 1/H0 . Now,
 2/3  2/3 "  1/3 #
3 t 2c t
d(t) = 1− . (13)
2 tH H0 t0
2 Remember that a0 = 1, so the proper distance equals the comoving distance.

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where we used t0 = 2/3H0 for a matter dominated Universe. Using again t0 = 2tH /3, we arrive at the
proper distance of the photon from Earth as a function of time,
"  #
2/3
2c t t
d(t) = − . (14)
H0 t0 t0

To find the maximum distance, we solve for the time when

 2/3
d[d(t)] 1 2 −1/3 1 t 8
=0→ t − =0→ = . (15)
dt t0 3 t0 t0 27

Inserting this into d(t), the maximum proper distance of the photon during its journey is
8c
dmax = , (16)
27H0
or, expressed as a fraction of the present horizon distance dh,0 = 2c/H0 ,

dmax 4
= . (17)
dh,0 27

Note that d is the distance away from us (the observer), and not the distance that the photon has traveled
since its emission. See for instance figure 1. We see there that starting from the Big Bang (that’s why
d(0) = 0), the initial expansion of the universe had been actually carrying the photon away from Earth.
Although the photon’s comoving coordinate was always decreasing from an initial value of re toward
Earth’s position at r = 0 (see item 1 above), the scale factor a(t) increased so rapidly that at first the
proper distance between the photon and Earth increased with time. Since it was still close enough to the
Hubble sphere, it surpassed it, and eventually was able to reach us. In the meantime, the particle horizon
from which the photon was emitted has receded away from us, thus resulting in equation 17.

Figure 1: Taken from BOB, 2nd edition, p.1315

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3 Early particle horizon (Harwit 11-16)
Show that during early epochs, when curvature and dark energy may be neglected, the particle horizon lies at
about the Hubble radius in the radiation-dominated phase, and at about twice the Hubble radius in the matter-
dominated phase of the Universe.

Solution:

For Λ = k = 0, and n = 3 or 4, respectively, for a matter or radiation dominated universe, we have (FI)
 2
ȧ 8πGρ0  a0 n H2
= = n0 . (18)
a 3 a a

Thus,
a2 ȧ2 = H02 · a4−n , (19)
Z t0 Z 1
c dt da c n−4
dparticle = · = a 2 da. (20)
0 a da H 0 a1

For a1 ≪ 1, (
Z 1
c n−4 c/H0 , n = 4
dparticle ≃ a 2 da = . (21)
H0 0 2c/H0 , n = 3