Can superhorizon perturbations drive the acceleration of the Universe?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether superhorizon perturbations can cause cosmic acceleration, concluding that observational constraints on peculiar velocities imply they cannot be the driving mechanism behind the Universe's acceleration.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis showing superhorizon perturbations are insufficient to explain acceleration due to observational velocity constraints.

Findings

Superhorizon perturbations cannot account for cosmic acceleration.

Second order corrections to the deceleration parameter are small.

Observational bounds on peculiar velocities limit their impact on acceleration.

Abstract

It has recently been suggested that the acceleration of the Universe can be explained as the backreaction effect of superhorizon perturbations using second order perturbation theory. If this mechanism is correct, it should also apply to a hypothetical, gedanken universe in which the subhorizon perturbations are absent. In such a gedanken universe it is possible to compute the deceleration parameter $q_0$ measured by comoving observers using local covariant Taylor expansions rather than using second order perturbation theory. The result indicates that second order corrections to $q_0$ are present, but shows that if $q_0$ is negative then its magnitude is constrained to be less than or of the order of the square of the peculiar velocity on Hubble scales today. We argue that since this quantity is constrained by observations to be small compared to unity, superhorizon perturbations cannot be responsible for the acceleration of the Universe.