Cosmological perturbation theory, instantaneous gauges, and local inertial frames (Article No. 063501)

Abstract

Linear perturbations of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes with any curvature and cosmological constant are studied in a general gauge without decomposition into harmonics. Desirable gauges are selected as those which embody best Mach’s principle: in these gauges local inertial frames can be determined instantaneously via the perturbed Einstein field equations from the distributions of energy and momentum in the universe.

Keywords

• general relativity
• cosmology
• perturbation theory