Analytical solutions for two inhomogeneous cosmological models with energy flow and dynamical curvature

TL;DR

This paper develops two relativistic inhomogeneous cosmological models with energy flow and dynamical curvature, providing analytical solutions that extend a nonrelativistic model, and compares their predictions with observational data.

Contribution

It introduces two new relativistic inhomogeneous cosmological models with energy flow and dynamical curvature, extending previous nonrelativistic models and analyzing their observational implications.

Findings

Models agree with nonrelativistic solutions at small scales.

Backreaction effects differ between models V1 and V2.

Predicted nearly constant negative curvature at low redshifts.

Abstract

Recently we have introduced a nonrelativistic cosmological model (NRCM) exhibiting a dynamical spatial curvature. For this model the present day cosmic acceleration is not attributed to a negative pressure (dark energy) but it is driven by a nontrivial energy flow leading to a negative spatial curvature. In this paper we generalize the NRCM in two different ways to the relativistic regime and present analytical solutions of the corresponding Einstein equations. These relativistic models are characterized by two inequivalent extensions of the FLWR metric with a time-dependent curvature function $K (t)$ and an expansion scalar $a(t)$. The fluid flow is supposed to be geodesic. The model V1 is shear-free with isotropic pressure and therefore conformal flat. In contrast to V1 the second model V2 shows a nontrivial shear and an anisotropic pressure. For both models the inhomogeneous solutions of the corresponding Einstein equations will agree in leading order at small distances with the NRCM if a(t) and K(t) are each identical with those determined in the NCRM. Then the metric is completely fixed by three constants. The arising energy momentum tensor contains a nontrivial energy flow vector. Our models violate locally the weak energy condition. Global volume averaging leads to explicit expressions for the effective scale factor and the expansion rate $H (z)$. Backreaction effects cancel each other for the model V2 but they are nonzero and proportional to the square of the magnitude of the energy flow for the model V1. The large scale (relativistic) corrections to the NCRM results are small for the model V2 for a small-sized energy flow. We have reproduced a corresponding adjustment of the three free constants from [1] to cosmic chronometer data leading to the prediction of an almost constant, negative value for the dimensionless curvature function $k(z) \sim - 1$ for redshifts $z < 2$.