2011

Cosmological structure formation with clustering quintessence

Sefusatti, Emiliano, Vernizzi, Filippo

Understand

We study large-scale structure formation in the presence of a quintessence component with zero speed of sound in the framework of Eulerian Perturbation Theory.

  • Due to the absence of pressure gradients, quintessence and dark matter are comoving and can be studied as a unique fluid in terms of the total energy density contrast and the common velocity.
  • In this description the clustering of quintessence enhances the linear term proportional to the velocity divergence in the continuity equation by a factor (1+w) Omega_Q / Omega_m.
  • This is responsible for a rapid evolution of the growth rate at low redshifts, and modifies the standard relation between the velocity divergence and the growth factor.

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