Adiabaticity and gravity theory independent conservation laws for cosmological perturbations

Understand

We carefully study the implications of adiabaticity for the behavior of cosmological perturbations.

• There are essentially three similar but different definitions of non-adiabaticity: one is appropriate for a thermodynamic fluid $\delta P_{nad}$, another is for a general matter field $\delta P_{c,nad}$, and the last one is valid only on superhorizon scales.
• The first two definitions coincide if $c_s^2=c_w^2$ where $c_s$ is the propagation speed of the perturbation, while $c_w^2=\dot P/\dot\rho$.
• Assuming the adiabaticity in the general sense, $\delta P_{c,nad}=0$, we derive a relation between the lapse function in the comoving sli\-cing $A_c$ and $\delta P_{nad}$ valid for arbitrary matter field in any theory of gravity, by using only momentum conservation.