Spherical collapse model with non-clustering dark energy

TL;DR

This paper develops exact and approximate analytical models for the spherical collapse process in universes with non-clustering dark energy of constant equation of state, enabling precise predictions of overdensity evolution.

Contribution

It provides new exact and approximate solutions for the nonlinear overdensity and radius ratio in dark energy models, extending previous models to include non-clustering dark energy with constant w.

Findings

Nonlinear overdensity converges to ~147 at high redshift.

Low-redshift clusters are most sensitive to dark energy models.

Approximate solutions have at most 2% error across parameter space.

Abstract

We investigate a spherical overdensity model for the non-clustering dark energy (DE) with the constant equation of state, w in a flat universe. In this case, the exact solution for the evolution of the scale factor is obtained for general w. We also obtain the exact (when w = - 1/3) and the approximate (when w neq -1/3) solutions for the ratio of the overdensity radius to its value at the turnaround epoch (y) for general cosmological parameters. Also the exact and approximate solutions of the overdensity at the turnaround epoch (zeta) are obtained for general w. Thus, we are able to obtain the non-linear overdensity Delta = 1 + delta at any epoch for the given DE model. The non-linear overdensity at the virial epoch (Delta_{vir}) is obtained by using the virial theorem and the energy conservation. The non-linear overdensity of every DE model converges to that of the Einstein de Sitter universe ~ 147 when z_{vir}increases. We find that the observed quantities at high redshifts are insensitive to the different w models. The low-redshift cluster (z_{vir} ~ 0.04, i.e., z_{ta} ~ 0.7) shows the most model dependent feature and it should be a suitable object for testing DE models. Also as Omo increases, the model dependence of the observed quantities decreases. The error in the approximate solutions is at most 2% for a wide range of the parameter space. Even though the analytic forms of y and \zeta are obtained for the constant w, they can be generalized to the slowly varying w. Thus, these analytic forms of the scale factor, y, and zeta provide a very accurate and useful tool for measuring the properties of DE.