Virialisation-induced curvature as a physical explanation for dark energy

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the effects attributed to dark energy in cosmology can be explained by virialisation-induced curvature, challenging the need for a cosmological constant and suggesting a correction to the standard matter-dominated model.

Contribution

It introduces a general-relativistic correction based on virialisation to the Einstein de Sitter model, offering an alternative explanation for dark energy phenomena.

Findings

Virialisation fraction increases around redshift 1-3, coinciding with the rise of Omega_Lambda.

The virialisation-corrected Einstein de Sitter model matches the distance modulus of LambdaCDM over 0<z<3.

Effective matter density at present is inferred to be approximately 0.26.

Abstract

The geometry of the dark energy and cold dark matter dominated cosmological model (LambdaCDM) is commonly assumed to be given by a Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric, i.e. it assumes homogeneity in the comoving spatial section. The homogeneity assumption fails most strongly at (i) small distance scales and (ii) recent epochs, implying that the FLRW approximation is most likely to fail at these scales. We use the virialisation fraction to quantify (i) and (ii), which approximately coincide with each other on the observational past light cone. For increasing time, the virialisation fraction increases above 10% at about the same redshift (sim 1-3) at which Omega_Lambda grows above 10% (approx 1.8). Thus, instead of non-zero Omega_Lambda, we propose an approximate, general-relativistic correction to the matter-dominated (Omega_m =1, Omega_Lambda=0), homogeneous metric (Einstein de Sitter, EdS). A low-redshift effective matter-density parameter of Omega_m^eff(0) = 0.26 pm 0.05 is inferred. Over redshifts 0 < z < 3, the distance modulus of the virialisation-corrected EdS model approximately matches the LambdaCDM distance modulus. This rough approximation assumes "old physics" (general relativity), not "new physics". Thus, pending more detailed calculations, we strengthen the claim that "dark energy" should be considered as an artefact of emerging average curvature in the void-dominated Universe, via a novel approach that quantifies the relation between virialisation and average curvature evolution.