Cosmology

by

Kemal Akn
 Cosmology

Kemal Akn

Department of Physics, Istanbul Technical University

(Dated: May 25, 2017)

Abstract

These notes are prepared for final project of the course FIZ 494E - General Relativity taught
by Prof. Dr. Nee zdemir at Istanbul Technical University.

We have investigated the dynamics of the universe with the full-power of GR and revealed
the necessity for dark energy. Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology and this
hypothetical form of energy is responsible for the cosmic acceleration. If the dynamics of the
universe that is described by the theory of General Relativity is correct, then the accelerated
expansion of the universe can not be explained with only matter and radiation components.
Redshift data of Type Ia Supernovae that implies the accelerated expansion of the universe and
anisotropies in the CMB which indicates that the geometry of the universe is close to be flat
are two complementary lines of evidence for the existence of dark energy. The simplest expla-
nation of dark energy that is consistent with the observations is the cosmological constant, yet
it does not resolve concomitant problems. Scalar field models of dark energy partly solve these
problems. On the other side, late-time acceleration might be a sign of new gravitational physics
rather than dark energy. This corresponds to modifying the LHS of the field equations.

Section 1 and 2 are historical introduction with some fundamental observations. Section 3
covers the necessary GR elements for calculations of the dynamics of the universe. Moreover,
the most important structure of cosmology is built. Section 4 partakes of solutions of Fried-
mann equations and introduces Standard Model of Cosmology. Section 5 covers cosmological
measurement that is necessary for the discussion of observational evidences for dark energy.

ITU - SPRING 2017

akinkem@itu.edu.tr

1
Suggested References.
Direct links to electronic versions of the following documents -although its illegal- provided in the
footnotes.

I Introduction to Cosmology, B. S. Ryden, Addison Wesley, 2003 I

I Introduction to Cosmology, M. Roos, John Wiley & Sons, 2003 II

I Modern Cosmology, S. Dodelson, Elsevier, 2003 III

I Physical Foundations of Cosmology, V. Mukhanov, Cambridge University Press, 2005 IV

I Cosmological Physics, J. A. Peacock, Cambridge University Press, 1999 V

I Spacetime and Geometry, S. M. Carroll, Addison Wesley, 2004 VI

I Einsteins General Theory of Relativity:with applications in cosmology, O. Grn, 2007VII

I PHYS 30392 - Cosmology Lecture Notes, G. Pisano, University of Manchester, 2013 VIII

I Cosmology I - II, H. Kurki-Suonio, University of Helsinki, 2016 IX

I PHYS 652 - Astrophysics Lecture Notes, B. Terzic, 2008 X

I
Introduction to Cosmology - B. S. Ryden
II
Introduction to Cosmology - M. Roos
III
Modern Cosmology - S. Dodelson
IV
Physical Foundations of Cosmology - V. Mukhanov
V
Cosmological Physics - J. A. Peacock
VI
S. M. Carroll - Spacetime and Geometry
VII
Einsteins General Theory of Relativity - O. Grn
VIII
PHYS 30392 Cosmology
IX
Cosmology I - II
X
PHYS 652 - Astrophysics

2
Contents

1 Introduction 5
1.1 Astronomical Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 Fundamental Observations 8
2.1 Olbers Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Homogeneous and Isotropic Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 The Expansion of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Cosmic Microwave Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3 Dynamics of the Universe 13

3.1 Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.1 Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.1.2 Christoffel Symbols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.3 Riemann Curvature Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1.4 Ricci Tensor and Ricci Scalar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.1.5 Energy-Momentum Tensor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.2 Friedmann Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Fluid and State Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4 Current Status of the Universe 21

4.1 Evolution of a Single-Component Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2 Physical meaning of : Vacuum energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.3 Evolution of a Multi-Component Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5 Cosmological Parameters and Distance Definitions 29

5.1 Two Cosmological Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
5.2 Cosmological Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.2.1 Comoving Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.2.2 Proper Distance and Redshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
5.2.3 Luminosity Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.2.4 Angular Diameter Distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

6 Observational Evidences of Dark Energy 38

6.1 Type Ia Supernovae . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2 CMB Anisotropies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.2.1 Multipole Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.2.2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

3
7 Scalar Field Models of Dark Energy 44
7.1 Einstein-Hilbert Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
7.2 Quintessence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

References 49

Appendices 50

A Radiation Contribution to Energy Density 50

B Transformation Law of Christoffel Symbols 51

C Variation of Einstein-Hilbert Action 55

List of Figures

2.1 Star-filled spherical shell of radius r and thickness dr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

2.2 Homogeneous pattern (a) and isotropic pattern about the origin (b) . . . . . . . . . 9
2.3 Original plot of Edwin Hubble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.1 Contour map of a valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4.1 Evolution of the scale factor a(t) with time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.2 Evolution of the scale factor in matter + universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
5.1 Luminosity distance for a two component universe model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
6.1 Power Spectrum of Temperature Fluctuations (Credit: ESA and the Planck Collab-
oration) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
6.2 Schematic representation of the compression and expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6.3 Dependence of on curvature (Adapted from [3]) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
6.4 Confidence regions of the (m , ) plane from SNe Ia combined with the constraints
from BAO and CMB. (Credit: Supernova Cosmology Project) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

List of Notes

List of Boxes

4
 1 | Introduction

The universe has always been intriguing and impressive for mankind. Sometimes they were afraid
of celestial objects, sometimes attributed a spiritual meaning to planets and stars, but somehow it
was always a point of interest. Ancient natural philosophers started interpreting universe based on
their naked-eye observations. Of course, these studies were lacking in scientific method, however,
their followers took it a step further.

Cosmology, as a study of the universe, eventually is the search for the dynamics of the universe.
This journey began in 18th century and became an intriguing branch of physics through the con-
tributions of Einstein for providing the General Relativity (GR) based framework and modern
astronomical observations.

In 1915, Einstein published the theory of General Relativity which basically states that mass/energy
curves the spacetime, and curved spacetime tells mass/energy how to move. The accelerated uni-
verse was an obvious result of Einsteins dynamical equations. However, it was an unexpected
dynamics for the universe according to physicists including Einstein at that time. The only way to
describe a static universe was by inserting the cosmological constant () to his equations and when
it became clear that the universe was not static, Einstein abandoned the constant and described
it as the biggest blunder of his life. In fact until 1920s scientists were still discussing whether
the Milky Way is the whole universe or not. This is one of the Great Debates of the history
between Shapley and Curtis and significant problems in our perception about the scale and nature
of the universe were released with this debate. The resolution to this debate came from Edwin
Hubble in 1923 by observing the nearest galaxy to Milk Way which is called Andromeda (M31).
In 1922, Friedmann and Lemaitre independently developed GR based expanding universe model.
However it was not taken seriously at that time. Lemaitre also suggested the cosmic egg model
by running back the film to dense and hot state of the universe. This was the early prediction of
the hot Big Bang theory, but as mentioned above theory was largely ignored. Once more, Hubble
provided confirmation in 1929, he observed that the further away galaxies were receding faster
which indicates the expansion of the universe. This ratio between receding velocity and distance
is called the Hubble Parameter (H). In the 1930s, another fundamental element of GR cosmology
was developed by Robertson-Walker which is the metric of curved spacetime and allows us to find
solutions for the dynamics of the universe.

As the technology advanced, studies spread and important progress succeed by Zwicky and Smith.
What they did was to implement Dark Matter by applying Newtonian mechanics to motions
of galaxies in clusters, so that they have found that there must be 400 times as much invisible
matter to keep clusters together. The year 1948 is highly important for the cosmology, when the
idea of thermal radiation after hot stage of the Big Bang as suggested by Gamow and his students
Alpher and Herman. Today, this thermal radiation is called Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)
which is the oldest light that comes from radiation dominated epoch, or epoch of recombination.

5
In the meantime, a set of significant discoveries happened with the help of radio telescopes. Radio
galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and quasars were discovered by the mid-1960s. Although the Big
Bang is the best theory to date, there were still problems such as age, horizon, and flatness. In
1980, Alan Guth suggested a theoretical idea inflation that resolve these problems. Inflation is
the exponential expansion of the universe at early stages.

Today, we are dealing with a similar problem, namely the accelerated expansion of the universe
which was discovered in 1998 from the observations of Type Ia Supernovae (SN Ia) by two in-
dependent supernova research teams. Since SN Ia have extreme and consistent luminosity, they
are suitable to be standard candles on cosmological scales. Improbably, their redshift measure-
ments are larger than expected values. There are also another independent evidences come from
the anisotropies of CMB and growth of large scale structure. These evidences and concomitant
constraints will be discussed in Section 6.

By assuming that dark energy is really exists there are mainly two forms of dark energy that have
been proposed within the context of GR which are adopting cosmological constant that is equiva-
lent to vacuum energy (Section 4.2) and altering the energy-matter content of the universe using
scalar fields (Section 7).

1.1 Astronomical Units

Studying cosmology means working with enormous measurement units, thus standard SI units,
namely meter, kilogram, and second is not appropriate for cosmologists. One of the most common
distance is astronomical unit (AU) which is roughly equal to distance between the Earth and Sun,
thus 1 AU = 1.5 1011 meters. This is a sufficiently large measurement unit for the solar system,
however it is too small to describe interstellar and intergalactic distances. This is why parsec (pc)
and megaparsec (Mpc) are used for these huge distances. In metric units, 1 Mpc = 106 pc =
3.1 1022 meters. For instance, the distance between the Milk Way and the Andromeda galaxy
is 0.7 Mpc. Another measurement unit that is frequently used is solar mass (M ) which is equal
to 2 1030 kg. The subscript  indicates that the quantity belongs to the Sun. A brief table
of astronomical units is given in Table 1.1. Introducing these new units makes it easier to discuss
astrophysics and cosmology.

6
 Unit In Metric Units Galactic Scale

Distance 1Mpc = 106 pc = 3.1 1022 m Rgal = 40 kpc

Mass 1M = 2 1030 kg Mgal = 1012 M

Luminosity 1L = 3.8 1026 watts Lgal = 3.6 1010 L

Time 1 Gyr = 109 yr

Table 1.1. Astronomical Units

7
2 | Fundamental Observations

2.1 Olbers Paradox

Observations in astrophysics and cosmology are generally extremely complex and require advanced
technologies, yet there are also very basic observations. One of them is known as Olbers Paradox
that is claimed by German astronomer Heinrich Olbers in 1826. Olbers Paradox arises from the
question Why the night sky is dark?. It seems trivial to be the night sky is dark, and it was
not a problem until the Copernican stellar model (16th century) which states that stars are not
fixed onto a rotating sphere and the Earth is not center of the universe, with these new perceptions
post-Copernican astronomers concluded that grand, sparkling stars are distributed in the infinite
space. However, the argument of Olbers paradox is out of keeping with infinite static universe,
mathematical calculation of the expected flux (luminosity per area) received at Earth from stars
shows that night sky should not be dark. To make a calculation, a Earth centered model as in the
Figure 2.1 can be chosen.

dr

Earth

Figure 2.1. Star-filled spherical shell of radius r and thickness dr

L 1
dB(r) = N (2.1)
4r2

where dB is the infinitesimal brightness, is the solid angle and N is the number of stars. We
know that volume of the star-filled shell is V = 4r2 dr. Therefore, the number stars in shell is
N = 4r2 dr n. Solid angle for sphere is = 4. Therefore,

Z
nL
Z
B= dB(r) = dr = (2.2)
4
0

where n is the average number density of stars, L is the average stellar luminosity. This result
makes no sense. To see why we obtained this result, lets consider our assumptions:

Unobstructed line of sight (not true)

nL is constant throughout the universe (might not be true)

8
 Light flux distant source follows the inverse square law (might not be true)
- Universe might not be Euclidean (GR)
- Sources that are non-stationary: Light can be blue or red-shifted

Universe infinitely large & old (might not be true)

The primary resolution to Olbers Paradox comes from the fact that the universe has a finite age.
The stars beyond the horizon distance are invisible to us because their light has not had time to
reach us yet (speed of light is constant). Besides, stars have also finite luminosity age ( 1010 y ).

2.2 Homogeneous and Isotropic Universe

Isotropic universe means that there are no preferred directions in the universe, it looks the same in
all directions. Saying that the universe is homogeneous means that there are no preferred locations
in the universe; looks the same at each point. Note that, the statement the universe is isotropic
and homogeneous is only true for cosmological scales, i.e 100 Mpc or more. Homogeneity is usually
considered as (within the context of cosmology) getting close to the average density of the universe
( 3 1027 kg m3 ). An illustration of homogeneous pattern and isotropic pattern is given in
Figure 2.2.

(
a) (
b)
Figure 2.2. Homogeneous pattern (a) and isotropic pattern about the origin (b)

The isotropy of the universe is not obvious. Here are some examples, let us consider:
1) A sphere with 3 AU diameter that is surrounding us. Since the Sun is the most massive and
luminous object within the sphere universe can not be considered as isotropic on this scale.
2) A sphere with 3 Mpc diameter. This sphere contains Local Group and a small cluster of some
40 galaxies. Andromeda and Milky Way together contributes the %86 of the total luminosity.
Therefore, there is a preferred direction within this sphere.
3) It isnt until you get to considerably larger scales that the universe can be considered as isotropic.
Consider a sphere 200 Mpc in diameter. There are superclusters on such scales. Superclusters are
typically 100 Mpc along their longest dimensions, and are separated by voids (low density
regions) which are typically 100 Mpc across.

9
 Figure 2.3. Original plot of Edwin Hubble

2.3 The Expansion of the Universe

Another fundamental observation that strongly indicates the expansion of the universe is redshift
which is basically cosmological analogous of Doppler effect. Since light consists of photons with
certain wavelengths, as the universe expands, the wavelength gets larger, in other words shifted to
red in the visible region of electromagnetic spectrum. Redshift of the distant galaxies is defined by
the expression

ob em
z (2.3)
em

The studies began with Vesto Slipher in 1912, and by 1925 he had measured this redshifted spectrum
for 40 galaxies. In 1929 Hubble took over the studies and he compared the redshifts (z) of 50 galaxies
and their distances from Earth (see Figure 2.3). What he found was interesting, because there was
a linear relation between the velocity of retreat and the distance of the galaxy. Hubbles law is
given by

H0
z= r (2.4)
c

and using the relation z = v/c 1 , the above expression takes the form

v = H0 r (2.5)

where H0 is the Hubble constant. It is important to highlight that while the unit of H is indeed
time, it is generaly written as km s1 Mpc1 . Therefore, Hubble constant (or parameter2 ) is the

1
This is true for only non-relativistic case
2
Hubble constant is the numerical value of Hubble parameter (H) at the present moment

10
measure of the retreat velocity of the distant galaxy per Mpc. Hubble found the value of constant
as H0 = 500 km s1 Mpc1 , however according to last observations H0 = 67.8 km s1 Mpc1 .
Apparently, he estimated the distances to galaxies.
The unit of Hubbles constant and parameter is important, because its inverse, after some calcu-
lation, implies the age of the universe by the following idea: If the galaxies are currently receding
from each other then they were closer in the past.

r r
tH ' = ' 14.4 Gyr (2.6)
v H0 r

where tH is the Hubble time. This is different(but comparable) from the age of the universe, the
above calculation would be correct if the expansion of the universe had been linear. Running back
the film to one Hubble time ago brings the idea that the galaxies were crammed together into a
small volume and the Big Bang model of the universe arises naturally from this idea.

Historical Remark.
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Big Bang and Steady State models battled for supremacy.
Critics of the Steady State model pointed out that the continuous creation of matter violates
mass-energy conservation. Supporters of the Steady State model pointed out that the continu-
ous creation of matter is no more absurd that the instantaneous creation of the entire universe
in a single Big Bang billions of years ago. The name Big Bang was actually coined by Fred
Hoyle, a supporter of the Steady State model.

2.4 Cosmic Microwave Background

Cosmic Microwave Background(CMB) is the another fundamental part of observational cosmology

and evidence of the hot Big Bang. CMB is the oldest light that comes from radiation dominated
epoch, or epoch of recombination. Recombination is the combination of two charged particles to
produce neutral hydrogen atoms. The universe was only 380,000 years old when the CMB photons
started streaming freely.
CMB was predicted in 1948 by Gamow and his students Alpher and Bethe ( theory).They
also showed that due to expansion of the universe, CMB should have been cooler.They calculated
the temperature of this background radiation (T0 ) and found that it is about 5 Kelvin. The
corresponding wavelength of photon is

h = kB T
hc
= = 2.9 103 m. (2.7)
kB T

This wavelength is in the microwave region of electromagnetic spectrum, that is why this radiation is
called cosmic microwave background radiation.(The term microwave is actually a misnomer, since
it does not refer to micrometre wavelengths,but rather to centimetres.) In their following studies,
they found temperature of CMB as T0 = 2.5 K which is very close to the present observations.

11
Since the hot Big Bang was generally not taken seriously at the time, and there were no apparatus
or devices to observe this radiation, people did not give much attention to this work. There
are a lot of examples like this in the history of cosmology and astrophysics, mostly stemming
from the fact that technology, and thus observations, were some way behind the theories. The
verification to CMB came in 1964 accidentally, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were working on
an antenna made for satellite communication. They tried to calibrate the antenna for the minimum
noise environment, thus a wavelength of = 0.0735 m was chosen which is comparable with the
one obtained in Eq.(2.7). What they found was the annoying ground noise in every (indicates
isotropy) direction, they interpreted this situation as universe is filled with excess radiation that
corresponds to 3.5 Kelvin temperature of blackbody. R. Dicke was leading another research group
in Princeton that were studying CMB and they understood immediately this is the evidence for
CMB. In 1978 Penzias and Wilson took the Nobel Physics Prize for their discovery. In 1989 and
2001 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent two probes, which are
COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) and WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe), to
space to measure CMB more precisely. Another important cosmological information that comes
from CMB is the geometry of the universe. This will be discussed in later sections.

12
3 | Dynamics of the Universe

3.1 Preliminaries

There are four fundamental interactions in the universe which are strong and weak nuclear inter-
action, electromagnetism and gravity. On cosmological scales, i.e 100-150 Mpc, the most dominant
force is the gravity. That is why gravity itself and gravitational interactions are very important for
cosmological studies. The theory of General Relativity was a completely new approach to gravity,
curved spacetime is the factor that determines the motion of objects, and this curvature is an
intrinsic property of spacetime. Einstein field equations are the set of equations that describes the
dynamics of the universe. Let us examine the GR elements that are necessary to work in curved
spacetime.

3.1.1 Metric

Consider the two following differential length elements in 2 dimensional space:

Cartesian coordinates

ds2 = dx2 + dy 2 (3.1)

Polar coordinates

ds2 = dr2 + r2 d2 (3.2)

The metric provides a local measure of invariant distance.

ds2 = (3.3)
X
gij dxi dxj
i,j=1,2

where gij is a 2 2 matrix. While in Cartesian coordinates,

1 0
x1 = x, x2 = y, gij = (3.4)
0 1

in polar coordinates

1 0
x1 = r, x2 = , gij = . (3.5)
0 r2

The metric provides a local measure of invariant distance. Another way to think about a metric
is to take a pair of vector (with same length) on a topographical map like the ones in Figure 3.1.
While the coordinate distance are the same, the actual physical distance depends on topography.

13
 Figure 3.1. Contour map of a valley

The great advantage of metric is that it includes gravity. In classical Newtonian mechanics, gravity
is an external force, and particles move in a gravitational field. However in GR, gravity is encoded
in the metric and the particles move in the curved spacetime. In 4 dimensions, thanks to Einstein
summation convention the line element can be written as

ds2 = g dx dx (3.6)

where , = 0, 1, 2, 3. This new convention indicates that there is a summation over repeated
indices.

Despite the fact that Einstein field equations are very complicated, they can be simplified un-
der some conditions. Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) metric enables us to simplify the field
equations with the powerful assumptions homogeneity and isotropy. The FRW metric is given by
!
dr2
ds2 = c2 dt2 + a2 (t) + r2 d2 + r2 sin2 d2 (3.7)
1 kr2

where a(t) is the scale factor and k is the curvature constant that can take the values 1, 0, +1
that are corresponds to the geometry of space. In matrix form FRW metric can be written as

0 0 0

1
a2

0 0 0

g = 1 kr2 (3.8)


0 0 0

a2 r2

0 0 0 a2 r2 sin2

Metric is the most important element in cosmology, namely given a metric we can find the corre-
sponding dynamical equations. To do so, let us investigate Einstein field equations closely.

1 8G
G R Rg = 4 T (3.9)
2 c

where G is the Einstein tensor, R is the Ricci curvature tensor that includes the metric and

14
its derivatives, R is the Ricci scalar, and T is the energy-momentum tensor. While LHS of
the equations corresponds to the geometry of spacetime, RHS corresponds to the matter-energy
content of the universe. In order to study dynamics of the universe, one should calculate each of
these metric dependent components.

Calculation Outline.
Christoffel Symbols (Section 3.1.2)
Riemann Tensor (Section 3.1.3)
Ricci Tensor and Scalar (Section 3.1.4)
Energy-momentum Tensor (Section 3.1.5)

3.1.2 Christoffel Symbols

Given a metric, we can define a unique metric connection. It is called the Levi-Civita connection
and the explicit components are called Christoffel symbols.

1 g g g
 
g +
2 x x x
(3.10)
1
= g ( g + g g )
2

Using the definition above, non-zero Christoffel symbols for FRW metric can be obtained as follows

aa r2 aa r2 aa sin2 a
0 11 = 0 22 = 0 33 = i 0i =
c (1 kr2 ) c c ca

kr
1 11 = 1 22 = r(1 kr2 ) 1 33 = r(1 kr2 ) sin2
1 kr2

1
2 12 = 3 13 = 2 33 = sin cos 3 32 = cot
r

It is important to highlight that Christoffel symbols do not transform tensorially.

3.1.3 Riemann Curvature Tensor

In a curved space parallel transporting a vector around a closed path does not give the same vector.
This change in direction is captured by the Riemann curvature tensor which is defined as

R + (3.11)

and transforms tensorially

x0 x x x
R0 = R
x x0 x0 x0

15
3.1.4 Ricci Tensor and Ricci Scalar

Ricci (curvature) tensor is obtained by the contraction of Riemann tensor. Consider R in

which 1st and 3rd indices are the same, Ricci tensor is defined as

R R (3.12)

and one more contraction yields

R g R (3.13)

which is the Ricci scalar. Using Eq. (3.12) elements of Ricci tensor can be obtained as follows

a
R00 = R 00 = R1 010 + R2 020 + R3 030 = 3
ac2
a + 2a 2 + 2kc2
a
R11 = R 11 = R0 101 + R2 121 + R3 131 =
c2 (1 kr2 )
r2
R22 = R 22 = R0 202 + R1 212 + R3 232 = (a
a + 2a 2 + 2kc2 )
c2
r2 sin2
R33 = R 33 = R0 303 + R1 313 + R2 323 = (a
a + 2a 2 + 2kc2 )
c2

Note that space-space components of Riemann tensor is somewhat related to the metric tensor.
Thus, R00 and Rii can be written as following

a
R00 = 3 (3.14)
ac2

and,

gii
Rii = (a
a + 2a 2 + 2kc2 ) (3.15)
c2 a2

Finally, we are able to obtain Ricci scalar by using Eq. (3.13)

a
" 2 #
a k

R = g R =6 + + 2 (3.16)
ac2 ac a

3.1.5 Energy-Momentum Tensor

According to Einsteins theory of gravitation, energy-momentum tensor is the source of the cur-
vature of spacetime. In cosmology, we are interested in perfect fluid which is assumed to fill the
universe. This fluid is isotropic and has no heat conduction and viscosity. Explicit expression of
energy-momentum tensor is given by

+p
 
T = u u + pg (3.17)
c2

16
where g is the metric of the manifold and u is the 4-velocity of the medium.

T00 = and Tii = pgii (3.18)

and in the matrix form can be written as

0 0 0
0


T = (3.19)

0

pgij

0

3.2 Friedmann Equations

Friedmann equations are the set of equations that describes the dynamics of homogeneous and
isotropic universe. Substituting corresponding Ricci scalar and Ricci tensor for FRW metric that
we have found in Section 3.1 in field equations yields two independent equations.
Temporal part.

1 8G
R00 Rg00 = 4 T00
2 c
a 8G
" 2 #
a a k

3 2 + 3 + + 2 = 4
ac ac2 ac a c

Therefore, the first Friedmann equation is

a 8G
 2
kc2
= (3.20)
a 3c2 a2 (t)

Space part.

1 8G
Rii Rgii = 4 pgii
2 c

Thus, the second Friedmann equation is

2 a 8G
 2
a kc2
+ = p (3.21)
a a c2 a2 (t)

Another key equation of FRW cosmology is the acceleration equation that can be obtained by
[(3.21) - (3.20)]:2

(t)
a 4G
= 2 (3p + ) (3.22)
a(t) 3c

17
3.3 Fluid and State Equations

Fluid equation.
Consider the 1st law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) which can be applied to any
comoving volume filled by any fluid.

dQ = dE + pdV (3.23)

where dQ is the heat flow, dE is the change in internal energy, p is the pressure and dV is the
change in volume of the region. Since there is no agglomerative heat flow in a homogeneous universe
(dQ 0), Eq. (3.23) reduces to

E + pV = 0 (3.24)

Now, let us consider a sphere with comoving radius r that expands with universe. Therefore, its
proper radius R = a(t)r and the volume is

4 3 4 3
V (t) = R = a (t)r3 , (3.25)
3 3

and its rate of change is

4 3
V = r (3a2 a)

3
3a
 
=V (3.26)
a

The internal energy of the sphere is

E(t) = V (t) (t) , (3.27)

and its rate of change is

E = V + V .
(3.28)

Thus, substituting Eqs. (3.26) and (3.28) in (3.24) yields

a
+ 3 ( + p) = 0 (3.29)
a

In fact, this is the energy conservation equation. Thus, T = 0 for = 0 component.

T = T + T + T = 0 (3.30)
| {z } | {z } | {z }
1 2 3

where
1) T 0 = 0 T 00 =

18
 a
2) T 0 = 0 T 00 = 3
a
a
3) T = 0 00 T 00 + 0 11 T 11 + 0 22 T 22 + 0 33 T 33 = 3 p
a
Hence, we obtained the same result with the Eq. (3.29)

a
+ 3 ( + p) = 0 (3.31)
a

Equation of State.
In order to solve the dynamical equations of the universe, we need one more equation that relates
the and p. In general, equation of state might be complicated, yet cosmology usually deals with
rarefied gases that have simple equation of state which is

p = (3.32)

where is a dimensionless constant. To analyse different types of gases perfect gas law can be
considered to derive thermodynamic relations

N
p= kB T = nkB T (3.33)
V

where n is number of particles per unit volume (number density). In order to relate n to mass
density m

m
n= (3.34)

can be used, where is the mean particle mass. Therefore, Eq. (3.33) takes the form

m
p= kB T (3.35)

Also, temperature and kinetic energy are related by the relation

3 1
kB T = hv 2 i (3.36)
2 2

Thus, equation of state becomes

hv 2 i
p= = (3.37)
3c2

Now, we are able to investigate values of for different types of particles. For non-relativistic gas
(matter)

hv 2 i
m 1 (3.38)
3c2

19
Therefore 0 for matter/dust. For the relativistic case

hv 2 i
r (3.39)
3c2

since hv 2 i is compatible with c2 , = 1/3 for radiation.

In order to apply 1st Friedmann equation (3.20) to a real universe, it is convenient to express LHS
of the equation with Hubble parameter. H is defined as

a
H (3.40)
a

Hence, Friedmann equation becomes

8G kc2
H 2 (t) = (t) (3.41)
3c2 a2 (t)

For a spatially flat universe (k = 0), Eq. (3.41) becomes

8G
H 2 (t) = (t) (3.42)
3c2

and for a given Hubble parameter, there is an another corresponding parameter called critical
density which is defined as

3c2 2
c (t) = H (t) (3.43)
8G

Defining dimensionless density parameter is more effective while discussing the geometry of the
universe

(t)
(t) (3.44)
c (t)

If is known, then the sign of the curvature k is also known. In terms of this new quantity ()
Friedmann equation can be written as

kc2
1 (t) = (3.45)
a2 (t)H 2 (t)

It is important to note that if the energy density (t) is greater than c which means > 1,
the universe is positively curved (k = +1) and if (t) is less than c which corresponds < 1,
the universe is negatively curved (k = 1). Observations indicate that on cosmological scales the
average density of the universe is close to the critical density, in other words current geometry of
the universe is close to be flat (k ' 0 , 0 ' 1).

20
4 | Current Status of the Universe

By the 1990s, we were able to measure huge distances (larger than 1000 Mpc) consistently thanks
to Type Ia supernovae which have extreme luminosity. Measurements of redshift of the distant
Type Ia supernovae by High-Z Supernova Search and Supernova Cosmology Project teams indicate
an unexpected result that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing. On the other hand, in
Section 4.1 it is shown that according to acceleration equation (Eq. 4.11) to have an accelerated
expansion, has to be less than 1/3 which corresponds to a negative pressure that tends to
accelerate the expansion. This mysterious energy is called dark energy.

Observations assessed by Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) suggest that matter
contribution to total density parameter is m,0 0.28 and cosmological constant contribution is
,0 0.72 [1,4]. By adding the contribution of radiation (Appendix A) which is r,0 = 8.4 105 ,
the total density parameter is obtained as

0 = r,0 + m,0 + ,0

= 1.004 0.004

where m,0 is the density of baryonic matter and dark matter, r,0 is the density of CMB photons
and neutrinos, and ,0 is the density of dark energy (cosmological constant). This corresponds to
a flat geometry as we discussed in the previous section.

These two fundamental observations and another independent observations implies that the universe
has a flat geometry and the expansion rate of the universe is increasing exponentially. The Lambda-
Cold Dark Matter (CDM) is the simplest cosmological model that is broadly consistent with the
observations. The existence of CMB and the growth of large scale structure, the abundance of
elements, and the late-time acceleration can be explained by CDM model which is also known as
the standard model of cosmology.

4.1 Evolution of a Single-Component Universe

Fluid equation (3.29) can be rearranged as

a
= 3 ( + )
a
a
= 3(w + 1) (4.1)
a

Energy density can be written as a function of scale factor (with the restriction 6= 1 ) by
integrating both sides of Eq. (4.1)

= 0 a3(w+1) (4.2)

21
Therefore, for a matter dominated universe ( = 0)

m a3 (4.3)

and for a radiation dominated universe ( = 1/3)

r a4 (4.4)

In a spatially flat universe, Friedmann equation is given by Eq. (3.42) and plugging Eq. (4.2) into
Friedmann equations yields

a 8G0 3(1+)
 2
= a (4.5)
a 3c2

Therefore,

8G0 (1+3)
a 2 = a (4.6)
3c2

In order to solve Eq. (4.6), let scale factor has the form a t , therefore a 2 t2(1) and RHS of
the equation a(1+3)

2
= (4.7)
3(1 + )

Finally, one can obtain evolution of the scale factor in a spatially flat universe as

a t 2/3(1+) (4.8)

Note that we still have the restriction 6= 1. For a matter dominated ( = 0) and radiation
dominated universe ( = 1/3), scale factor takes the following forms

a t2/3 , (4.9)

and,

a t1/2 (4.10)

respectively. Both cases corresponds to a decelerated expansion of the universe as can be seen from
Figure 4.1.

22
 Radiation Dominated Universe
Matter Dominated Universe

Scale Factor a(t)

Time (t)

Figure 4.1. Evolution of the scale factor a(t) with time

However today it is known that universe has an accelerating expansion. Thus, the acceleration
equation (3.22) should be considered again.

(t)
a 4G
= 2 ( + 3p) (4.11)
a(t) 3c

To have an accelerated expansion according to Eq. (4.11), a

must greater than 0. Therefore,

+ 3p < 0
(1 + 3 ) < 0
1
< (4.12)
3

Cosmologists refer dark energy to explain the acceleration of the cosmic expansion. [4] Just as
Einstein did in 1917, cosmological constant () steps into equations again, however this time in a
different sense, namely as an explanation of accelerated expansion.

1 8G
G R Rg + g = 4 T (4.13)
2 c

Following the same recipe given in Section ??, the modified equations become

a 8G
 2
kc2
Friedmann Equation: = (t) +
a 3c2 a (t)
2 3

(t)
a 4G
Acceleration Equation: = 2 ( + 3p) +
a(t) 3c 3

23
 a
Fluid Equation: + 3 ( + p) = 0
a

4.2 Physical meaning of : Vacuum energy

Attributing a physical meaning to creates a necessity to a component whose energy density ( )

is independent from the expansion or contraction of the universe. So far, the best option for is the
vacuum energy which is associated with virtual particle-antiparticle pairs in quantum mechanical
point of view. [4]

Ep
vac
lp3

10133 eV m3

where Ep and lp are Planck energy and Planck length, respectively. Consequently, there is a huge
difference (about 10120 orders of magnitude) between theory and observations. This is called the
fine-tuning problem.

Another cosmological problem is the cosmic coincidence problem or why now? problem which
basically states that why has the same order of magnitude with the present energy density of
matter. Why does the cosmic acceleration happen to begin now, not in the past or future? If the
vacuum energy were so dominant in the past, galaxies, stars, planets would not be formed. There
is an interesting approach to this problem called anthropic principle. According to this principle,
there had been different expanding processes at different times and points of space throughout the
evolution of the universe. However, this makes sense in multiverse theories with multiple big bangs
and various values of .

Therefore, alternative models naturally arises from these problems which are generally scalar field
models such as quintessence, k-essence, tachyon field, phantom field, dilatonic dark energy models
an so on.

On the other hand, based dark energy model works well in some cases. The main interest to
cosmological constant arises from the high-redshift Type Ia supernovae observations which indicate
that the accelerating expansion of the universe is provided by a small term. Moreover, consistency
between CMB anisotropies and LSS observations implies that the energy density of the universe is
dominated by cosmological constant and this consistency is hold for spatially flat universe (0 = 1).

4.3 Evolution of a Multi-Component Universe

In this section, we shall discuss the evolution of a multiple component universe. Our main assump-
tion is that ingredients of such a universe do not interact with each other. Another important fact

24
comes from the Bianchi identity as follows:

G = 0 (4.14)

for this covariant differentiation, RHS of the field equations must be 0 as well

T = 0 (4.15)

which brings us the continuity equation as

T + 3H(T + pT ) = 0 (4.16)

where T index represents the total contribution that comes from all components in a given universe
model. For instance, for a universe model with only dark matter and dark energy components

DM + 3H(DM + pDM ) = Q (4.17)

then, dark energy component must obey the relation

DE + 3H(DE + pDE ) = Q (4.18)

Remember Friedmann equation is given by

8G kc2
H2 = (4.19)
3c2 a2

and in terms of dimensionless density parameter,

kc2
1 (t) = (4.20)
a2 (t)H 2 (t)

At the present moment (a(t0 ) = 1), this equation reduces to

kc2
1 0 = (4.21)
H02

Thus, the curvature parameter can be written as

H02 (0 1)
k= (4.22)
c2

Now we can write Friedmann equation with implicitly including the curvature. Plugging this into
Eq. (4.19) reads

8G H02 (1 0 )
H2 = + (4.23)
3c2 a2

25
Dividing this equality by H02 yields

H 2 (t) (t) 1 0
2 = + (4.24)
H0 c,0 a2

Note that the first term on the RHS is = r + m + where we used our main assumption
that there is no interaction between different components of the universe.

H 2 (t) r,0 m,0 1 0

= 4 + 3 + ,0 + (4.25)
H02 a a a2

Multiplying this equation by a2 and taking the square root we get

1
da r,0 m,0

2
= H0 + + a2 ,0 + 1 0 (4.26)
dt a2 a

We can then find the cosmic time as a function of the scale factor by performing the following
integral

Za
da0
H0 t =  1/2 (4.27)
0 r,0 /a0 2 + m,0 /a0 + a0 2 ,0 + 1 0

which can be solved numerically for given values of these components. Hence, one can predict
the evolution and ultimate fate of the universe using Eqs. (4.25) and (4.27). In many cases,
this integral can be simplified and yields a good approximation. For instance, radiation was the
dominant component during the early stages. Therefore, Eq. (4.25) reduces to

Za
a0 da0
H0 t
r,0
p
0

a2
p (4.28)
2 r,0

and scale factor approximates to

 q 1/2
a(t) 2 r,0 H0 t (4.29)

as we have shown in the previous sections. On the other hand, we can not always say that only
one term is the effective term and the contributions from other ingredients are negligible. In the
end, during the expansion of the universe some of these components have been comparably dense.
Therefore, our single component treatment remains incapable.
Let us investigate matter + cosmological constant flat universe model which is a close approx-
imation to our own universe. We live in a flat universe (0 1) with m,0 < 1. For these two

26
components, Friedmann equation (4.25) reduces

H2 m,0
2 = 3 + ,0 (4.30)
H0 a

or,

H2 m,0
2 = 3 + 1 m,0 (4.31)
H0 a

Multiplying by a2 and taking square root yields

s
1 da m,0
= + (1 m,0 ) a2 (4.32)
H0 dt a

This equation can be rearranged as

Za
1 a0 da0
t= q (4.33)
H0 m,0 + (1 m,0 ) a0 3
0

and integration can be performed by making the substitution x = a3/2 .

3/2 s
2
3
a a
 
H0 t = p ln + 1+ (4.34)
3 1 m,0 am am

where am denotes the scale factor at which the density contributions of matter and are equal,
i.e
!1/3 !1/3
m,0 m,0
am = = (4.35)
,0 1 m,0

Evolution of such a universe for various density parameters is shown in Figure 4.2.

27
 H0 m r tH t0

Figure 4.2. Evolution of the scale factor in matter + universe

The observational evidences for the late-time acceleration, dark energy and accompanying con-
straints are discussed in Section 6.

28
5 | Cosmological Parameters and Distance Definitions

5.1 Two Cosmological Parameters

Scale factor a(t) is very important for cosmology to understand how the universe evolves with time.
However, it is difficult to obtain the exact functional form of a(t), thus expanding it to Taylor series
is convenient
 
(t t0 )2 d2 a  (t t0 )3 d3 a 

da 
a(t) = a(t0 ) + (t t0 )  + + + ... (5.1)
2 dt2 t=t 6 dt3 t=t
 
dt t=t0
0 0

Since a(t) does not vary too much with time, first few terms are enough for us. Therefore,

(t t0 )2 d2 a 

da 
a(t) a(t0 ) + (t t0 )  + (5.2)
2 dt2 t=t

dt t=t0
0

If we divide Eq. (5.2) by the scale factor at present moment a(t0 )

a  (t t0 )2 a

 
a(t)
1 + (t t0 )  + (5.3)
a(t0 ) a t=t0 2 a t=t0

a
a
a
   
and by defining dimensionless deceleration parameter, q0 = , Eq. (5.3)
a 2 t=t0 aH 2 t=t0
becomes

q0 H02
a(t) 1 + H0 (t t0 ) (t t0 )2 (5.4)
2

H0 and q0 are very important parameters in cosmology and should be related to Friedmann equa-
tions. Since the energy density of the components of the universe are additive, acceleration equation
can be written as

a 4G X
= 2 i (1 + 3i ) (5.5)
a 3c i

Dividing both side of above equation by H 2 yields

a 1 8G X
 
= i (1 + 3i ) (5.6)
aH02 2 3c2 H02 i
| {z }
1
c

Thus,

1X
q0 = i,0 (1 + 3i ) (5.7)
2 i
1
= r,0 + m,0 ,0 (5.8)
2

For an accelerating universe q0 should be negative, or in other words ,0 > r,0 + 12 m,0 .

29
The other parameter, Hubble constant can be easily determined from Hubbles law

cz = H0 d (5.9)

Despite the fact that z in Eq. (5.9) can be measured, the measurement of distance is not easy.
That is why Hubble found H0 imperfectly in his studies. In fact, in an expanding universe the
definition of distance is also problematic. Thus, we should examine various definitions of distance
and measurement techniques.

5.2 Cosmological Distance

There are different definitions of distance in cosmology (or cosmography1 ), however it is useful to
express distance as a function of redshift which is an observable quantity.

5.2.1 Comoving Distance

If the expansion of the universe is perfectly homogeneous and isotropic, then the comoving co-
ordinates of any point remain constant with time. Definition of spatial comoving coordinate ()
is

dr
d (5.10)
1 kr2

For a spatially flat universe (k = 0):

dr
Z Z
d =
1

=r

For positively curved universe (k = 1):

dr
Z Z
d =
1 r2

= sin1 (r)

r = sin

1
The measurement of the universe

30
For a negatively curved universe (k = 1):

dr
Z Z
d =
1 + r2

= sinh1 (r)

r = sinh

Substituting these expressions in FRW metric of the form radial comoving coordinates (r, , ) and
by defining Sk () r, the metric becomes
h i
ds2 = c2 dt2 + a2 (t) d2 + Sk2 () d2 + Sk2 () sin2 d2 (5.11)

where

S1 () = sin(), S0 () = , S1 () = sinh()

5.2.2 Proper Distance and Redshift

The proper distance (dp ) at time t0 to a galaxy at (r, 0, 0) is defined as

Z r
dr
dp (t0 ) a(t0 ) (5.12)
0 1 kr2

dp (t0 ) = a(t0 ) (5.13)

Proper distance is a function of comoving coordinate and geometry of the spacetime. Therefore
as can be seen from Eq. (5.13), proper distance is scale factor times comoving distance which is a
curvature dependent expression.
By taking the time derivative of dp in Eq. (5.12), Hubble flow (v) at distance dp can be obtained

Z r
dr a(t)
v = dp = a(t)
= dp (5.14)
0 1 kr 2 a(t)

Redshift
Redshift of the distant galaxies is defined by the expression

ob em
z (5.15)
em

According to Eq. (5.15) galaxies whose z > 0 are receding from us, namely their light is redshifted
and most of the light comes from galaxies is redshifted which was not known until 1910s. Edwin
Hubble who continued Vesto Slipher studies found a linear relation between the distance and
velocity of retreat of galaxies. Hubbles law is given by

H0
z= r (5.16)
c

31
 a
 
where H0 = is the Hubble constant. If we depict redshift as Doppler shift, Hubbles law
a t=t0
becomes

v = H0 r (5.17)

While observing a distant galaxy, its angular position (, ) is known almost perfectly, however its
proper distance is not known. Despite the fact that the redshift does not tell us proper distance
to the galaxy, it enables us to determine the scale factor at the time light was emitted from the
galaxy. While emitted light is travelling, it follows a null geodesic (ds2 = 0, and are constant).
Therefore the FRW metric reduces to

c2 dt2 = a2 (t)dr2
dt
c = dr (5.18)
a(t)

If light is emitted at time te and observed at time to , integrating both sides of Eq. (5.18) yields
Z to Z r
dt
dp (t0 ) = c = dr = r (5.19)
te a(t) 0

Now, let us investigate a second individual wave crest, which is emitted at time te + e /c and
observed at time to + o /c
Z to +o /c Z r
dt
c = dr = r (5.20)
te +e /c a(t) 0

Therefore, from the expressions (5.19) and (5.20)

Z to Z to +o /c
dt dt
c =c (5.21)
te a(t) te +e /c a(t)

Zto
dt
and by subtracting from Eq. (5.21), one can obtain
a(t)
te +e /c

Z te +e /c Z to +o /c
dt dt
c =c (5.22)
te a(t) to a(t)

by assuming that the universe does not have time to expand by a significant amount during the
time between the emission or observation of two wave crests

1 1
Z te +e /c Z to +o /c
dt = dt (5.23)
a(te ) te a(to ) to

32
 e o
= (5.24)
a(te ) a(to )

Using the equations (5.15) and (5.24) the relation between the redshift and scale factor can be
obtained as

o a(to )
1+z = = (5.25)
e a(te )

Note that the observation time to can be considered as the present moment t0 , and a(t0 ) = 1.
Therefore Eq. (5.25) can also be written as

o 1
1+z = = (5.26)
e a(te )

The expressions for proper distance (5.18) and (5.13) are very useful only if the exact functional
form of a(t) is known. Otherwise, it is convenient to use following expansion

1 1 + q0
 
1 H0 (t t0 ) + H02 (t t0 )2 (5.27)
a(t) 2

Substituting Eq. (5.27) in Eq. (5.19) yields

cH0
dp (t0 ) c(t0 te ) + (t0 te )2 (5.28)
| {z } 2
Static universe term
| {z }
Expansion term

To relate redshift and lookback time, Eqs. (5.26) and (5.27) can be used

1 + q0
 
z H0 (t t0 ) + H02 (t t0 )2 (5.29)
2

where

1 + q0
   
t0 te H01 z z2 (5.30)
2

and using Eq. (5.28), proper distance can be obtained as

c 1 + q0 cH0 z 2
   
dp (t0 ) z z2 +
H0 2 2 H02
cz 1 + q0
 
= 1 z (5.31)
H0 2

Notice that according to Eq. (5.31), the linear Hubble law can only be obtained in the limit
z  2/(1 + q0 ). Proper distance is not a physically measurable quantity due to expansion of the
universe.

33
5.2.3 Luminosity Distance

There are various methods to measure relatively short distances such as the radar technique and
trigonometric parallax. However, these methods do not work on cosmological scales. Flux of a
light is a measurable quantity also on cosmological scales and we can determine distance of distant
objects by defining luminosity distance (dL ). To do so, we should consider an astronomical object
that emits radiation isotropically with absolute luminosity L and it is always useful to relate dL
with another measurable quantity which is generally z in cosmology.

L
F = (5.32)
4d2L

If the universe was not expanding and the light source was static at distance dp , the photons would
spread over a sphere with area A and therefore we would receive a fraction A/4d2p . However in
an expanding universe, the energy of photons emitted at te will be redshifted by the factor (1 + z).

1
0 = e = (1 + z)e (5.33)
a(te )

Therefore, energy will be

Ee
E0 = (5.34)
1+z

There is also another (1+z) factor which comes from the time dilation of the rate of arrival photons.
Thus, apparent flux can be written as

L
Fa = (5.35)
4d2p (1 + z)2

and the luminosity distance is

dL = dp (1 + z) (5.36)

Making use of Eq. (5.31), luminosity distance can be written in terms of redshift and deceleration
parameter

cz 1
 
dL 1 + (1 q0 )z (5.37)
H0 2

In this expression, in the limit of z 0,

cz
dp (t0 ) dL (5.38)
H0

There are also two another useful forms of the luminosity distance which will be discussed in this
section. Depending on the measured distance or event these expressions can be used. Apart from
Eq. (5.37), one of them is based on empirically defined quantities which are absolute magnitude

34
(M ) and apparent magnitude (m). The relation between them is [2]

dL
 
m M = 5 log10 + 25 (5.39)
Mpc

The second one is expressing dL in terms of density parameters. [4] To derive this expression, we
should go few steps back. If we rewrite dL in Eq. (5.36) in terms of spatial comoving coordinates
()

dL = a0 Sk ()(1 + z) (5.40)

therefore apparent flux Eq. (5.35) becomes

L
Fa = (5.41)
4 [a0 Sk ()]2

Z Z t0
dt
= d0 = (5.42)
0 te a(t)

and by defining h(z) H(z)/H0 , Eq. (5.42) becomes

1 dz 0
Z z
= (5.43)
a0 H0 0 h(z 0 )

where we used z = H(1 + z) that comes from Eq. (5.25). Therefore from Eq. (5.40), dL can be
written as

1+z dz 0
Z z
dL = (5.44)
H0 0 h(z 0 )

The energy density, in the compact form, is written as

3(1+)
= i,0 (a/a0 ) = i,0 (1 + z) 3(1+) (5.45)
X X

i i
| {z }
(1+z)1

Using Friedmann equation in the form of Eq. (3.45), one can express Hubble parameter as a
function of z

H 2 (z) = H02 i,0 (1 + z)3(1+) (5.46)

X

Finally, from Eq. (5.44) luminosity distance dL in flat space becomes

1+z dz 0
Z z
dL = qP (5.47)
H0
i i,0 (1 + z 0 )3(1+i )
0

The above expression will be used in Section 6.1 while discussing the SN Ia observations. Plot of

35
dL in the form of Eq. (5.47) for a flat universe (m,0 + ,0 ' 1) with non-relativistic matter and
cosmological constant components is given in Figure 5.1.

3
H0 dL

,0 = 1, m,0 =0
1 ,0 = 0.7, m,0 = 0.3
,0 = 0.3, m,0 = 0.7
,0 = 0, m,0 =1
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
z
Figure 5.1. Luminosity distance for a two component universe model

(c)z
As given in Eq. (5.38), for small redshifts there is a linear relation dL . Note that the
H0
luminosity distance gets larger in the presence of cosmological constant. Here c is adopted as 1.

5.2.4 Angular Diameter Distance

Angular diameter distance (dA ) is the another distance measure that is computed based on ob-
servable properties of objects and its a measure of how large objects appear to be. This time, we
observe a standard ruler in the same way that SN Ia provide a standard candle for luminosity
distance. Let the standard ruler has a proper length l. Besides, it should be a gravitationally bound
object so that it does not expand with the universe.
If we take the object to lie perpendicular to our line of sight, the angular diameter distance can be
written as

l
dA = (5.48)
sin

and using the small angle approximation, it becomes

l
dA (5.49)

36
where denotes the angular size of the object. In order to measure l, we can use the metric at
the time the light was emitted which follows a null geodesic (d = d = 0).

ds = l = a(te ) Sk (r)

Sk (r)
= (5.50)
1+z

from Eq. (5.49), angular diameter distance can be written as

Sk (r)
dA = (5.51)
1+z

and therefore the relation between angular diameter distance and luminosity distance is

dL
dA = (5.52)
(1 + z)2

For our purposes in the next section (fluctuations on the last scattering surface which is at the
redshift of z ' 1100), in the limit of z , dA can be written as

dhor (t0 )
dA (z ) (5.53)
z

37
 6 | Observational Evidences of Dark Energy

In this section, two evidences for dark energy will be discussed. Basically, while Type Ia Supernovae
observations indicate the late-time acceleration, CMB anisotropies constrain the geometry of the
space to be flat and therefore enable us to determine the density of dark energy.

6.1 Type Ia Supernovae

The most direct evidence for the late-time acceleration of the universe comes from the luminosity
distance observations of Type Ia Supernovae. Chandrasekhar limit which is almost a universal
quantity (1.4 M ) is the maximum mass limit for white dwarfs, and when this limit is exceed
supernova explosions can be observed. Therefore, the resulting explosions have nearly-constant
luminosities. Using the formula Eq. (5.39) that relates dL with appearent magnitude (m) and
absolute magnitude (M ), dL can be found. Note that since SN Ia can be treated as a standard
candle, the value of M does not depend on z.

In order to apply this technique let us consider two supernovae 1992P and 1997ap which are
at z = 0.026 with m = 16.08 and at z = 0.83 with m = 24.32, respectively. As can be seen
z
from Figure 5.1 and Eq. (5.38), dL ' for z  1. For 1992P, using Eq. (5.39) the absolute
H0
magnitude can be calculated as M = 19.09 where H0 and c are adopted as 2.4 104 Mpc1 and
1, respectively. Now luminosity distance for high-redshift 1997ap can be calculated by substituting
the values m = 24.32 and M = 19.09 in Eq. (5.39) as H0 dL ' 1.16 for z = 0.83. According to our
theoretical estimation (5.47) of luminosity distance, H0 dL ' 1.23 which is satisfactory consistent
with the dominated two component flat universe model (m,0 ' 0.3 , ,0 ' 0.7) which can be
seen from Figure 5.1 as well. There are also another SN Ia observations that are consistent with
the dominated flat universe model.

6.2 CMB Anisotropies

CMB is a pretty much uniform and isotropic field to a high degree (T 105 )2 and shows
behaviour of a perfect black-body at the temperature of T = 2.725480.00057 K. Apart from being
the most important evidence for the hot Big Bang, CMB also brings constraint to the geometry
of the universe which allows us to interpret other observations (e.g. distant supernovae). Type
Ia Supernovae observations can be explained with several sets of density values, but since CMB
constrains the geometry of the universe to be flat (0 ' 1) we can rule out the other possibilities.
Remember that our treatment in the previous section was based on the flat universe assumption.
In order to understand how we extract cosmological information from the CMB anisotropies, we
should briefly discuss the 3 relevant epochs of a process which leads the universe to be transparent.
The universe was hot and dense plasma of electrons, protons, and photons soon after the Big Bang.
Since this plasma was too hot for protons and electrons to combine and form neutral atoms, the
mean free path of photons was too short. As the universe expands the baryonic plasma becomes
2
These low-level anisotropies reflect the small perturbations in the early universe.

38
cool enough to combine protons and electrons. This combination epoch is called recombination.3
Shortly after this epoch, photons started to proceed freely through space until they are observed
by us. This epoch is called photon decoupling. Third, the epoch of last scattering in which a typical
CMB photon experienced the last interaction with a free electron at a distance corresponding to
redshift of zls 1100. Therefore, CMB can be thought as the oldest light that comes from a
spherical surface that surrounds every observer in the universe, called the last scattering surface.

6.2.1 Multipole Analysis

The anisotropies in the CMB were first detected by The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE)
satellite in 1992. However, the resolution of COBE was low (7 ). For our present purpose, this
resolution is important to determine number of multipole moments (l). WMAP and PLANCK
which were launched in 2001 and 2009, has provided high resolution information.
The dimensionless temperature fluctuation is defined as

T T (, ) hT i
(, ) (6.1)
T hT i

and since T /T is a function over a sphere, it is useful to separate contributions of different angular
scales. Therefore, we can expand it to multipoles

X l
T
(, ) = alm Ylm (, ) (6.2)
X
T l=0 m=l

where Ylm are the spherical harmonics and alm are multipole coefficients. Correlation function is
the most significant property of T /T and given by

T T 0
 
C() = (
n) (n) (6.3)
T T n n0 =cos
.

Making use of the expanded form of spherical harmonics allows us to write C() in the form

1 X
C() = (2l + 1)Cl Pl (cos ) (6.4)
4 l=0

where Pl are the Legendre polynomials and Cl is the angular power spectrum.
Generally, Cl is the measure of temperature fluctuations on the angular scale and higher multipoles
corresponds to smaller angular separations, 180 /l. Since we can extract information about
the fluctuations present at the time of last scattering for the moments with l 2, this is the main
interest in cosmology [1].
In order to interpret the CMB observations, usually the following function is plotted
1/2
l(l + 1)

T Cl hT i (6.5)
2

3
This is the first time that electrons and protons ever combined, thus this epoch can be also called combination.

39
and according to this plot (see Figure 6.1) with PLANCK data sets, temperature fluctuations has a
first peak at l 200 which corresponds to an angular separation 1 . First peak corresponds to
a particular length scale, size of the horizon at the time of decoupling which allows us to estimate
when CMB was emitted.

Figure 6.1. Power Spectrum of Temperature Fluctuations

(Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)

Therefore, in order to interpret the power spectrum, we should be able to relate angular scales with
linear sizes and this is where the angular diameter distance comes in. From Eq. (5.49) we know
that

l
dA = (6.6)

and since the last scattering surface is at the distance redshift of zls 1100  1, Eq. (5.53)
provides a good approximation

dhor (t0 ) 14000 Mpc

dA 13 Mpc (6.7)
zls 1100

Thus, these fluctuations on the LSS had a proper size

l = dA = 0.22 Mpc (/1 ) (6.8)

40
On the other hand, if we calculate the angular separation at the time of last scattering, i.e zls ' 1100

dH 0.2 Mpc
H = = 1 (6.9)
dA 13 Mpc

Is it just a coincide to see the peak in the power spectrum at an angular scale 1 ? How do we
extract the information that the universe is close to be flat? In order to answer these questions we
shall briefly discuss the reasons for these temperature fluctuations.

6.2.2 Baryon Acoustic Oscillations

On the small angular scales, which is what we need for our present purposes, the anisotropies
depend on the nature of the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) that basically stems from the
primordial density fluctuations in the early universe.
Before the time of decoupling, the baryon-photon fluid is under the gravitational influence of dark
matter. Also this fluid has a high sound speed since the photons provide most of the density and
almost all of the pressure [5]. So as the baryon-photon fluid is compressed by the gravity, the
pressure from radiation starts to rise and eventually fluid starts to expand. However, as the fluid
expanding, the pressure drops and the gravity becomes influential. The compression and expansion
cycle continues until the photon decoupling. Schematic representation of the compression and
expansion is shown in Figure 6.2.

Figure 6.2. Schematic representation of the compression and expansion

Thus, the compression and expansion cycle can be thought as an oscillating mass-spring system in
which spring represents photon pressure, spring constant represents the baryon-photon ratio in the
fluid, and the mass represent the effective mass of the fluid.

41
The first peak in the T curve corresponds to an acoustic wave that had just enough time to
compress once before the decoupling. Its angular separation gives the size of the horizon at the
time of decoupling and the scale of the BAO is determined by the size of the sound horizon at
recombination which has the proper size c/H(zls ) at the time of last scattering and hence has
the angular size of H as seen by us at the present time.

Figure 6.3. Dependence of on curvature

(Adapted from [3])

As can be seen from Figure 6.3, the angle 1 has a dependence on curvature of the universe.
In a negatively curved space (k = 1), this peak should have been seen at l > 180 ,or equivalently
at an angle < 1 and in a positively curved space (k = +1), the peak should have been seen at
l < 180 ,or > 1 . Therefore, CMB observations indicate that universe is close to be flat (k ' 0).

As a summary of this section, Figure 6.4 shows where the observations intersect. The contours
marked as SNe show observational constraints from the supernova luminosityredshift relation
as we discussed in Section 6.1. Combining with the constraints from the CMB and BAO, we obtain
a very small region, with m ' 0.3 and ' 0.7 where all three data sets match.

42
 Suzuki et al., Astrophys. J. 746, 85 (2012)

Figure 6.4. Confidence regions of the (m , ) plane from SNe Ia

combined with the constraints from BAO and CMB.
(Credit: Supernova Cosmology Project)

43
7 | Scalar Field Models of Dark Energy

We have discussed that Einstein field equations in their original form can not lead to the accelerated
expansion. While the contribution of energy content to dynamics of the universe is represented
by energy-momentum tensor on the RHS of the equations, LHS corresponds to the geometry of
spacetime. Thus, in general there are 2 ways to modify the equations to obtain late-time acceler-
ation which are modifying the geometry of spacetime and adding the dark energy component to
energy-momentum tensor. Since the mechanism within the context of GR is simpler, and we stick
to GR in this project, we assume that the source of late-time acceleration is the dark energy.

In Section 4.2 we discussed the cosmological constant and its problems. Despite the fact that
cosmological constant based dark energy model with constant EoS = 1 is consistent with
observations, there is no strong evidence for to be constant. Therefore, time evolution of
can be considered just like in the inflationary cosmology. In particle physics point of view, scalar
fields are associated with spin-0 particles and remains invariant under coordinate transformations.
Scalar field is only a function of time in a homogeneous universe and may cause the accelerated
expansion. There are several scalar field models, but only minimally coupled quintessence model
will be discussed in this section. In order to study these models, we should examine Lagrangian
formalism of GR, namely Einstein-Hilbert Action and its variation.

7.1 Einstein-Hilbert Action

When we make the transition from Special Relativity to General Relativity, the metric will be
promoted to a dynamical tensor field g (x). Since any field theory can be described by variational
principle, one can use Einstein-Hilbert Action in this Lagrangian formulation. Action is given by
the equation

1
Z  
S= 4
d x g R + LM (7.1)
2

8G
where = . Variation with respect to the inverse of the metric yields
c4

1 8G
R Rg = 4 T (7.2)
2 c

where T

2 ( gLM ) LM
T
= 2 + g LM (7.3)
g g g

If we insert cosmological constant into the action

1
Z  
S= d4 x g (R 2) + LM (7.4)
2

44
Then, the field equations become

1 8G
R Rg + g = 4 T (7.5)
2 c

Detailed calculations are given in Appendix C.

7.2 Quintessence

Quintessence4 model of dark energy is described by a scalar field with potential V () which is
minimally coupled to gravity. This homogeneous scalar field behaves like a perfect fluid. First
example of quintessence model was proposed by P. J. Peebles and B. Ratra in 1988. [6] The action
for quintessence is given by 8

1
Z  
S = d4 x g ()2 V () (7.6)
2

where ()2 = g .
Remember that we have defined energy-momentum tensor as

2 ( gL) L
T
= 2 + g L (7.7)
g g g

Plugging L yields

1
g ( )( ) V () 
1

T = 2 2 + g g ( )( ) V ()
g 2
1
 
= g g + V () (7.8)
2

Since we consider scalar field as a perfect fluid, we can use its energy-momentum tensor which is
defined by Eq. (3.18) and by comparing components we get

1 1
T00 = 2 ()2 + V () = (7.9)
2 2
T0i = (i ) = 0 (7.10)
1 2 1 2
 
Tij = ij a ()2 V () = ij p (7.11)
2 2

Note that according to Eq.(7.10), (i ) = 0. Therefore, the scalar field is homogeneous and it
depends on time rather than space. Therefore, ()2 terms should vanish in Eqs. (7.9) and (7.11)

4
The term is derived from the ancient word for fifth element
8
Phantom Field: L = + 21 ()2 V ()

45
and these equations yields the following equalities

1
= 2 + V () (7.12)
2
1
p = 2 V () (7.13)
2

Let us plug these two equations into the Friedmann equations (3.20) and (3.22), in the flat FRW
background (k = 0)

a 8G 1 2
 2  
=H = 2
+ V () (7.14)
a 3 2

and,

a 4G 1 2 1 2
  
= + V () + 3 V ()
a 3 2 2
8G h 2 i
= V () (7.15)
3

For our present purposes, accelerated expansion of the universe occurs for V () > 2 as can be
seen from Eq. (7.15). Therefore, a scalar field can cause the late-time acceleration if its rate of
change is small, and its potential V () is large enough to dominate energy density of the universe.
Plugging and p in the fluid (continuity) equation yields the equation of motion for a scalar field

V () a
+ + 3 2 = 0
t a
V ()
+ 3H + =0 (7.16)

The last equation can also be obtained from the variation of the action with respect to

1
Z  
S = d x g g ( )( ) V ()
4
(7.17)
2

and this can be accomplished using Euler-Lagrange equations

1 V
Z  
() S = d x g g ( )( ) +
4

2
V
Z  
= 4
(7.18)


d x gg g

action must vanish under small variations (() S = 0) and therefore integrand must vanish.

V
gg = (7.19)


g

46
Defining covariant DAlembert operator as

1
2 g g , (7.20)


g

classical equation of motion for the scalar can be obtained as

V
2 = (7.21)

Using Eqs. (7.12) and (7.13), EoS for the scalar field can be written as

p 2 2V ()
= = 2 (7.22)
+ 2V ()

Note that if V ()  2 , scalar field behaves like a cosmological constant which is consistent with
the present observations:

' V () ' p (7.23)

Remember fluid equation (3.29) was given in exponential form by Eq. (4.2) with the restriction
6= 1. This time let us remain it in the integral form in order to work out with different values.

a
= 3(1 + )
a
(a) Za
d da
Z
= 3(1 + )
a
0 0

da
Z
ln ln 0 = 3(1 + )
a
da
 Z 
= 0 exp 3(1 + ) (7.24)
a

where EoS of the scalar field is in the region 1 1 as can be seen from (7.22). In the
slow-roll approximation, 2  V (), = 1 and in the case of stiff matter, 2  V (), = 1.
Therefore, plugging these values into Eq. (7.24) determines the limits of the evolution of energy
density

= 1 : = 0 (constant) (7.25)

= 1 : a6 (7.26)

or in a compact form can be written as

am , 0 < m < 6 (7.27)

47
Notice that in order to have an accelerated expansion, m must satisfy the condition 0 m 2.

Depending on the theory that we have, there will be a specific potential V () associated with this
theory. However, since we do not have a deeply ingrained fundamental theory, cosmologists consider
V () as a function that can be chosen freely. Therefore, there are various models corresponding to
choice of potential. On the other, it is important to highlight that none of them is completely
motivated. In fact, for a given cosmological evolution it is possible to construct the field potential.
Despite the fact that first quintessence models are described by power-law type potential, since
exponential potentials evolve naturally out of particle physics and string theory, such potentials
are points of interest.

Exponential: V () = V0 e

M 4+n
Power Law: V () =
n
2
4+n e
Hybrid: V () = M
n

Depending on the evolution of EoS parameter , quintessence models can be comprehensively

classified into two categories: [7]

The thawing models in which the field at early times is frozen by the Hubble friction term 3H and
it acts like a vacuum energy. Once the field mass drops below the expansion rate, the field starts
to roll down to minimum and evolves away from -1. Using the harmonic oscillator analogy, this
corresponds to underdamped case.

The second one is freezing models in which the evolution of the field slows down and becomes ap-
proximately constant. Using the same analogy this corresponds to overdamped oscillation. Besides,
for the inverse power-law potential V () = M 4+ ( > 0) there is a tracker solution in which
the late-time acceleration is independent of wide range of initial conditions. This behaviour partly
solves cosmological constant problems that we have discussed in Section 4.2. In these models, the
scalar field density remains near the background density (m + r ) most of the cosmic evolution
(in radiation and matter dominated epochs) and starts to decrease less rapidly than background
density after these epochs. Therefore, scalar field becomes dominant eventually that drives the
universe into a period of accelerated expansion. [8] These tracker models can be considered as the
subclass of freezing models. This interesting class of quintessence fields are called tracker fields,
whose potentials are steep enough to satisfy the condition
!
V 00 V 02
 
= / 1. (7.28)
V V2

48
References

[1] B.S. Ryden. Introduction to Cosmology. Addison-Wesley, 2003.

[2] M. Roos. Introduction to Cosmology. John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

[3] W. Hu. Wandering in the Background: A CMB Explorer. arXiv:astro-ph/9508126.

[4] E. J. Copeland, M. Sami, and S. Tsujikawa. Dynamics of dark energy. Int. J. Mod. Phys.,
D15:17531936, 2006.

[5] D. J. Eisenstein et al. Detection of the baryon acoustic peak in the large-scale correlation
function of SDSS luminous red galaxies. Astrophys. J., 633:560574, 2005.

[6] B. Ratra and P. J. E. Peebles. Cosmological consequences of a rolling homogeneous scalar field.
Phys. Rev. D, 37:34063427, 1988.

[7] R. R. Caldwell and E. V. Linder. The Limits of quintessence. Phys. Rev. Lett., 95:141301, 2005.

[8] P. J. Steinhardt, L. Wang, and I. Zlatev. Cosmological tracking solutions. Phys. Rev.,
D59:123504, 1999.

[9] S.M. Carroll. Spacetime and Geometry: An Introduction to General Relativity. Addison Wesley,
2004.

49
Appendices

A | Radiation Contribution to Energy Density

At the present moment from CMB photons at T0 = 2.725 K:

CMB,0 = aT0 4 (A.1)

where a is the radiation density constant and given by

4
a= = 7.5657 1016 J m3 K4 (A.2)
c

Therefore,

CMB,0 = 4.17 1014 J m3

= 0.260 MeV m3 (A.3)

Contribution to density parameter from CMB photons is

CMB,0
CMB,0 = = 5 105 (A.4)
c,0

There is also radiation contribution from the neutrinos which are at T0 = 1.9 K:

,0
,0 = = 3.4 105 (A.5)
c,0

Total radiation contribution in terms of density paramater is

r,0 = CMB,0 + ,0 = 8.4 105 (A.6)

50
 B | Transformation Law of Christoffel Symbols

Let us show that Christoffel symbols

1
= g ( g + g g )
2

do not transform tensorially and the transformation law is

0
" #
x x x 2 x
= 0 0 +
x x x x 0 x 0

In the primed frame using the definition given above, Christoffel symbols can be written as

= 1 g 0 g 0 + g 0 g 0
(B.1)
2 | {z } | {z } | {z }
i ii iii

We know that the metric tensor transforms as

x x
g 0 x 0 = (B.2)


g
x 0 x 0

Therefore, the inverse of the metric transforms as

0 0
x x
g 0 x 0 = (B.3)


g
x x

which is the first term that we are going to use in Eq. (B.1). Now let us look for that how i, ii,
and iii transforms.

i.
!
0 x x
0 g = g
x 0 x 0 x 0
!
x x x x x
= 0 0 0 g + g 0 (B.4)
x x x x x x 0 x 0

where we used the transformation rule of the metric, i.e Eq. (B.2). Here, another important thing
x
is bringing an unprimed differentiation by the chain rule, i.e x
. It is kind of an educated guess
since we know that transformation of Christoffel symbols bring an another Christoffel plus an in-
homogeneous term (see Eqs. (B.7), (B.8), and (B.9)). Similarly,

51
ii.
!
0 x x
0 g = g
x 0 x 0 x 0
!
x x x x x
= 0 0 0 g + g 0 (B.5)
x x x x x x 0 x 0

iii.

!
0 x x
0 g = g
x 0 x 0 x 0
!
x x x x x
= g + g 0 (B.6)
x 0 x 0 x 0 x x x 0 x 0

So we have found everything that we need, now let us plug these results into Eq. (B.1).

= 1 g 0
0 0 0
g + g g

2 | {z } | {z } | {z } | {z }
Eq. (B.3) Eq. (B.4) Eq. (B.5) Eq. (B.6)

Thus,

0 0

= 1 g x x
!
x x x x x


g +g 0
2
x x 0 0 0
x x x |x{z }
x x 0 x 0

!
x x x x x
+ g +g 0
x 0 x 0 x 0
|x{z } x x 0 x 0


!
x x x x x


0 0 0 g +g 0 (B.7)

x x x |x{z } x x 0 x 0

Note that *, **, and *** with 12 g in Eq. (B.7) constitutes a Christoffel symbol as follows

1
= g ( g + g g ) (B.8)
2

Another important thing is that these *, **, and *** terms all have the same Jacobian factor.
Knowing that Eq. (B.7) can be written as

52

0 0
z }| {
x x x x x 1
= g [ g + g g ]
x x x 0 x 0 x 0 2

1
" ! !
x x x x
+ g g 0 + g 0
2 x x 0 x 0 x x 0 x 0
!# )
x x
g 0 (B.9)
x x 0 x 0

Or

0 0
1
( " ! !
x x x x x x x x x
= 0 + g g 0 + g 0
x x 0 0
x x x 2 x x 0 x 0 x x 0 x 0
!# )
x x
g 0 (B.10)
x x 0 x 0

In Eq. (B.10) we have an object that transforms like a tensor and plus a inhomogeneous term.
Let us focus on this term, by distributing derivatives we get

1
( !
2 x x x 2 x
g g +
2 x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0
!
2 x x x 2 x
+ g 0 + 0
x 0 x 0 x x x 0 x 0
!)
2 x x x 2 x
g + (B.11)
x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0 x 0

We can always change the dummy indices and relabel them anyway we like for convenience. Here
in the 2nd step , and in the 3rd step . Note that we relabeled the indices like
this, so that 2nd and 3rd terms become compatible with the 1st term. With these new indices we
have

1 2 x x x 2 x
g g +
2 x 0 x 0 x 0 0

0 0
| {z } |x x{z x }

2 x x x 2 x
+ g 0 0 0 + 0 0 0
|x x{z x } |x x {z x }

2 x x x 2 x
g 0 0 0 + 0 0 0
(B.12)
|x x {z x } |x x {z x }

53
after grouping the terms, we are left with

1
" # " #
x 2 x x 2 x
g g 2 =

2 | {z } 0
x x 0 x 0 0
x x 0 x 0


x 2 x
= (B.13)
x 0 x 0 x 0

Notice that we have summed two terms labeled by green braces in Eq. (B.12) which have different
indices in the numerator. We are able to this since the metric tensor is symmetric by definition,
i.e g = g . Thus, here and are interchangeable. Let us go back to Eq. (B.10) for the final
result.
0 0 0 0
x x x x x x x x
 2 x
 

=

0 0 0
+  0
 x x 0 x 0
x x x x x
 x x
0 0
x x x x 2 x
= 0 0
+ (B.14)
x x x x x 0 x 0

Therefore, by grouping the like terms, the final result can be obtained as

0
" #
x x 2 x
= x
0

+ (B.15)
x x x 0 x 0 x 0

We have shown that Christoffel symbols do Not transform tensorially!

54
C | Variation of Einstein-Hilbert Action

Action including cosmological constant is given by the equation

1
Z  
S= d4 x g (R 2) + LM (C.1)
2

8G
where = . Variation with respect to the inverse of the metric yields
c4

1 ( gR) ( g ) ( gLM )
Z   
S = d4 x 2 + g
2 g g g

4 1 R R g g 1 ( gLM )
Z   
= d x g + 2 + g
2 g g g g g g g

Integrand of the above equation must vanish in order to that this integral yields 0 always. Thus,

1 R 1 R g 2 g 2 ( gLM )
+ = (C.2)
g g g g g g g

RHS is defined as

2 ( gLM ) LM
T
= 2 + g LM (C.3)
g g g

Therefore, Eq. (C.2) becomes

R R g 2 g 8G

+

= 4 T (C.4)
g g g g g c
 
In order to proceed the derivation, we need the variations of Ricci scalar R
g and determinant
 
g
of the metric g . We will come back to Eq. (C.4) after the derivation of necessary elements.

Variation of the determinant of the metric.

Using Jacobi rule for the derivative of the determinant

g (detg) = gg g (C.5)

where g g can be written as

g g = g (g g g )

= g (g g g +g g g +g g g ) (C.6)
| {z } | {z }

55
Hence,

g g = g g + g g + g g g g

= g g + g g + g g g g (C.7)

by relabeling dummy indices, 3rd term of Eq. (C.7) can be written as

g g g g = g g g g g g

= g g (C.8)

Therefore, Eq. (C.5) becomes

g = gg g g g

= g g g (C.9)

= gg g

Using the above expression, g can be written as follows

1
g = g
2 g
1 g
= g g (C.10)
2 g
1
= gg g
2

Variation of Riemann Tensor, Ricci Tensor & Scalar.

Since Ricci tensor & scalar can be obtained by the contraction of Riemann tensor, we should first
look at the variation of Riemann tensor in order to calculate the variation of Ricci scalar (R)
which is used in Section 7.1 to calculate variation of Einstein-Hilbert Action.

Remember Riemann tensor is given by the equality

R = + (C.11)

taking the variation reads

R = ( ) ( ) + +

(C.12)

While metric connection itself is not a tensor, the variation of two connection transforms like a
tensor [9], thus there will be a covariant derivative associated with the variation which arises from

56
the tensorial transformation properties.

Covariant derivative of a covariant (0,1) field is given as

= (C.13)

and covariant derivative of a contravariant (1,0) field is given by

= + (C.14)

therefore covariant derivative of a mixed (1,1) field is

= + (C.15)

In order to apply covariant differentiation to Christoffel symbols, we should consider (C.15) for the
(1,2) field :

( ) = ( ) + (C.16)

and,

( ) = ( ) + (C.17)

Substracting Eq. (C.17) from Eq. (C.16) yields

( ) ( ) = ( ) ( ) + +

+ (C.18)

Therefore,

R = ( ) ( ) (C.19)

using the contraction of Riemann tensor given in Section 3.1.3 and Eq. (C.19)

R R = ( ) ( ) (C.20)

which is also known as Palatini identity. One more contraction yields

R = (g R ) = g R + g R

= g R + g [ ( ) ( )] (C.21)

57
By the product rule, covariant derivatives in above equation may be rewritten as

(g ) = (g ) + g ( )

= g ( ) (C.22)

and similarly,

(g ) = (g ) + g ( )

= g ( ) (C.23)

Since the covariant derivative of the metric is zero (by definition), first terms in both equations
vanish. Therefore variation of Ricci scalar (R) can be written in terms of total derivatives as

R = g R + (g ) (g )

= g R + (g g ) (C.24)

Since 2nd and 3rd terms of Eq. (C.24) form a total derivative, thus they do not contribute the
variation which arises from the generalization of Stokes theorem. Thus,

R = g R (C.25)
R
= R (C.26)
g

Plugging explicit expressions for the variations of Ricci scalar, Ricci tensor, and the determinant
of the metric that we found in this section into Eq. (C.4) yields

1 8G
G R Rg + g = 4 T (C.27)
2 c

58