Wednesday 7 January 2015

general relativity - Calculating Hubble's constant at earlier times



I want to calculate Hubble's constant at some redshift $z$. I have found the following formula:


$$H^2=H_0^2\left(\Omega_m\left(1+z\right)^3+\Omega_{\Lambda}\right)$$



Now it's obvious that at higher redshift $z>0$ (earlier times) the Hubble's constant $H$ increases, which should not be the case. Why can't I use this formula and which formula should I use then?



Answer




so, it's actually only numerically solvable? and is there no analytic expression for $H(z)$?



In my answer I'll be using the scale factor $a$ instead of the less wieldy redshift $z$. The two are simply related by $a = 1/(1+z)$.


In general the first Friedmann equation can be written as :


$$ H^2 = \left( \frac{\dot{a}}{a} \right)^2 = H_0^2 \left( \sum_i \Omega_i \times a^{-3(1+w_i)} + \Omega_k a^{-2} \right) $$


Where $w$ is the equation of state parameter of each effective fluid $i$. Now let's take the case of a flat universe ($\Omega_k = 0$) where a single $\Omega_i$ dominates ($\Omega_j \approx 0$ for $j \neq i$). We get that :


\begin{eqnarray*} \left( \frac{\dot{a}}{a} \right)^2 &\propto& a^{-3(1+w_i)} \\ \dot{a} &\propto& a^{-3/2(1+w)+1} \end{eqnarray*}



Defining $\gamma$ such that $a \propto t^\gamma$ we get :


\begin{eqnarray*} t^{\gamma - 1} &\propto& t^{-3/2 (1 + w) \gamma + \gamma} \\ \gamma - 1 &=& -3/2 (1 + w) \gamma + \gamma \\ \gamma &=& \frac{2}{3 (1+w)} \end{eqnarray*}


This analytic solution is valid for all $w$ except when $w = -1$. There you get an exponential solution instead, and I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to convince himself of it. As an example, for a flat matter dominated universe ($\Omega_m = 1$ and $\Omega_k = 0$) we get $a \propto t^{2/3}$ because $w_m = 0$.


What happens when we're not in such a simple scenario and there is more than one contributing effective fluid ? In that case there the analytic solutions are more intricate, and a guide to some of them may be found here


Note that you had an analytic form for $H(a)$ right from the start, and if you want one for $H(t)$ then it's pretty straightforward to plug in the solution I just gave you into the Friedmann equation.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Understanding Stagnation point in pitot fluid

What is stagnation point in fluid mechanics. At the open end of the pitot tube the velocity of the fluid becomes zero.But that should result...