The Method of Images in Cosmology

TL;DR

This paper uses the method of images to construct and analyze cosmological models with multiple masses, revealing how interaction energies influence the universe's total energy and enabling the creation of wormholes to modify initial data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the method of images to cosmology, allowing the construction of wormholes and analysis of gravitational interaction energies in initial data.

Findings

Interaction energies contribute to the total energy in cosmological models.

Wormholes can be constructed to connect cosmological regions.

The method provides insights into mass definitions in cosmology.

Abstract

We apply the method of images to the exact initial data for cosmological models that contain a number of regularly arranged discrete masses. This allows us to join cosmological regions together by throats, and to construct wormholes in the initial data. These wormholes allow for the removal of the asymptotically flat "flange" regions that would otherwise exist on the far side of black holes. The method of images also provides us with a way to investigate the definition of mass is cosmology, and the cosmological consequences of the gravitational interaction energies between massive objects. We find evidence that the interaction energies within clusters of massive objects do indeed appear to contribute to the total energy budget in the cosmological regions of the space-time.