Robertson-Walker Metrics, Friedmann-LeMa tre Equations

Notes for GR-I - CCD

In the study of the large-scale structure of the universe, now and in the past, that is, in cosmology, it is dicult to proceed without signicant simplifying assumptions. In general these assumptions are not easily testable. The foremost assumption, elevated to a principle, is called the Cosmological Principle. This postulates that there exists a family of non-intersecting, space-like, 3-D hypersurfaces which foliate the spacetime, and further stipulates that each such hypersurface is maximally symmetric. Thus upon choosing one of these space-like hypersurfaces, measurements of physical quantities, such as density and pressure, at any point in the hypersurface would produce the same result. Similarly, the geometric properties would be uniform over each such hypersurface, and in particular, each would be a 3-space of uniform curvature. This is sometimes described by saying that the universe is spatially homogeneous. Once the foliation of the spacetime with this family of hypersurfaces is established, W2 W3 W1 it is then possible to construct the normal W5 W4 W6 to a space-like hypersurface at every point of that hypersurface, thus generating a vec- S4 tor eld dened by these normals at every S3 S2 point on the particular hypersurface. Each of these normal vectors provides the tangent S1 vector to a curve that carries one point to the next hypersurface, so that the trajectory so dened carries each point of the spacelike hypersurface forward to a corresponding Figure 1: Space-like hypersurfaces are labeled S1...S4. Time-like world lines threadpoint on the subsequent hypersurface. It is thus possible to construct a set of co- ing through these 3-D hypersurfaces are lamoving observers, each of whom moves for- beled W1...W6. ward in spacetime by following a single such trajectory, which can thus be taken to represent the world line of a particle (even a galaxy) in this spacetime. The position along this trajectory can be taken to be the proper time for this particle, and by the maximal symmetry of the hypersurface, each world line piercing the hypersurface can arrange to have the same time as all other trajectories.

c Charles C. Dyer

It is thus possible to construct a coordinate system tied to a typical space-like hypersurface on the one hand, yielding the spatial coordinates, and the parameter along the trajectories carrying each point of a hypersurface forward to the subsequent hypersurface. The spatial coordinates chosen in this way will be called the comoving spatial coordinates, which remain xed for each of these observers, and the parameter along each world line will be called the comoving time. We now turn to determining the metric for such a spacetime, and the dominant role played by the particular family of space-like hypersurfaces indicates that we should begin by considering the 3-metric on these space-like 3-spaces. The maximally symmetric nature of these hypersurfaces, as dictated by the Cosmological Principle, requires that they be hypersurfaces of uniform curvature. This restricts our choice of the structure of the hypersurfaces to being one of the three spaces: a 3-plane, a 3-sphere, or a 3-pseudo sphere. Each of these 3-metrics, d 2 = g dx dx (where Greek indices label spatial coordinates, and run from 1 to 3), can, by a suitable choice of radial coordinates r, r , and , be written in the forms: dx2 + dy 2 + dz 2 d 2 = with r2 = x2 + y 2 + z 2 (1) 2 2 1+ 1 kr 4 d 2 = dr 2 +r 2 d2 1 kr 2 (2) (3)

2 d 2 = d 2 + Sk ( )d2

where k = 0, 1 indicates the sign of the curvature of the hypersurfaces and d2 = d2 + sin2 d2 (4)

where and are the usual spherical polar coordinates. In the last form, the function Sk ( ) is given by Sk ( ) = sinh( ), , sin( ) as k = 1, 0, +1 (5) which can also be usefully written as sin( k ) Sk ( ) = k (6)

Having determined the metric for the maximally symmetric spatial sections using the Cosmological Principle, we can invoke this Principle again to conclude that g0 = 0, and also to conclude that g00 is independent of the spatial coordinates, x . Thus g00 = g00 (t), such that dt = g00 dt, we can adjust g00 to be 1. and by dening a new time coordinate t to be simply t. We will choose our units so that the speed of light We will then re-label t is c = 1. With these results, it follows that the most general metric merging the 3-spaces we have described and the real line representing t can be written in the form ds2 = dt2 R2 (t)d 2 (7)

where R(t) is called the scale factor and acts simply to include all the spatial hypersurfaces that are needed to foliate the spacetime. 2

The line element, or equivalently, the metric, constructed in this way is called the Robertson-Walker metric. The construction has not involved the Einstein eld equations in any way. Rather, it is has involved the imposition of symmetries, and has led to solutions to the Killing equations. Since the space-like hypersurfaces are maximally symmetric, they will involve the maximum number of Killing vectors for a 3-D space, that is six such vector elds. In developing the Einstein eld equations that apply for this Robertson-Walker metric, it is necessary to compute the Riemann and Ricci tensors, and dening the Ricci tensor as Rab = Rmamb , we have R00 = 3 R R and R = g R 2 2 + 2 (R + k) R R (8)

so that the Einstein tensor is G00 = 3 2 R +k R2 and G = g 2 R 1 2 + 2 (R + k) R R (9)

The energy-momentum tensor will be taken to be that of a perfect uid, with density , pressure p, and 4-velocity ua , so that Tmn = ( + p)um un uc uc p gmn (10)

The Cosmological Principle requires that both and p be functions of t only. With our choice of coordinates, ua = (1, 0, 0, 0), so that T00 = and T = pg . The Einstein equations can now be written as 2 and 3 R 2 R k + 2 + 2 = p R R R 2 R k + R2 R2 = (11)

(12)

These are usually known as the Friedmann-LeMa tre equations. The models of the universe based on the Robertson-Walker metric and the Friedmann-LeMa tre equations are usually called Friedmann-LeMa tre-Robertson-Walker models, or FLRW models. (Note that this is sometimes inappropriately shortened to FRW.) Either by the use of these two equations, or by the integrability or conservation conditions, T ab||b = 0, one also has R = 3 (13) +p R It is useful to consider two particular cases for the equation of state of the uid. We note that while there is ambiguity in the denition of the Ricci tensor, so that it can also be dened as Rab = Rmabm , in this case, the right hand side of the Einstein Field Equations also changes sign, so that the Friedmann-LeMa tre equations remain unchanged. Suppose that the perfect uid is what cosmologists call a dust, in that it has zero pressure. Then the integrability condition yields directly that is proportional to R3 . 3

Suppose the perfect uid is composed of incoherently moving photons, that is an incoherent photon gas, and thus has the equation of state p = 1 . This is called a radiation 3 dominated universe. The above conservation relation then requires that be proportional to R4 . For both the dust solution and the radiation dominated solution, it follows that if R ever vanishes, the density of the perfect uid becomes innite.