Second-order cosmological perturbations. IV. Produced by scalar-tensor and tensor-tensor couplings during the radiation dominated stage

TL;DR

This paper derives analytical second-order cosmological perturbation solutions during the radiation-dominated era, focusing on scalar-tensor and tensor-tensor couplings, and discusses gauge transformations between coordinate systems.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analytical solutions for second-order perturbations including gauge transformations during the RD stage in GR.

Findings

Analytical solutions for second-order metric perturbations and density contrast.

Transformation formulas between synchronous and Poisson coordinates.

Identification of residual gauge modes in second-order solutions.

Abstract

We continue to study the 2nd-order cosmological perturbations in synchronous coordinates in the framework of the general relativity (GR) during the radiation dominated (RD) stage, and to focus on the scalar-tensor and tensor-tensor couplings. The 1st-order curl velocity and the associated 1st-order vector metric perturbations are assumed to be vanishing. By analytically solving the 2nd-order Einstein equation and the energy-momentum conservation equations, we obtain the 2nd-order formal solutions (in the integral form) of all the metric perturbations, density contrast and velocity; perform the transformation between the synchronous coordinates; and identify the residual gauge modes in the 2nd-order solutions. In addition, we present the 2nd-order gauge transformations of the solutions from synchronous to Poisson coordinates. To apply these formal solutions to concrete cosmological study, one needs to choose proper initial conditions and do several numerical integrals.