Multipole decomposition of the general luminosity distance ‘Hubble law’ – a new framework for observational cosmology
Asta Heinesena
aUniv Lyon, Ens de Lyon, Univ Lyon1, CNRS, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574, F–69007, Lyon, France E-mail: asta.heinesen@ens–lyon.fr
Abstract. We present the luminosity distance series expansion to third order in redshift for a general space-time with no assumption on the metric tensor or the field equations prescribing it. It turns out that the coefficients of this general ‘Hubble law’ can be ex- pressed in terms of a finite number of physically interpretable multipole coefficients. The multipole terms can be combined into effective direction dependent parameters replacing the Hubble constant, deceleration parameter, curvature parameter, and ‘jerk’ parameter of the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) class of metrics. Due to the finite number of multipole coefficients, the exact anisotropic Hubble law is given by 9, 25, 61 degrees of freedom in the O(z), O(z2), O(z3) vicinity of the observer respectively, where z := redshift. This makes possible model independent determination of dynamical degrees of freedom of the cosmic neighbourhood of the observer and direct testing of the FLRW ansatz. We argue that the derived multipole representation of the general Hubble law provides a new framework with broad applications in observational cosmology.
Keywords: Hubble-Lemaître law, distance ladder, relativistic cosmology, geometrical optics, observational cosmology arXiv:2010.06534v2 [astro-ph.CO] 23 Apr 2021 1 Introduction2
2 The cosmological observers and light bundles3
3 The luminosity distance Hubble law5
4 Multipole analysis of the luminosity distance Hubble law8
5 Discussion of assumptions and accounting for peculiar motion 11
6 Conclusion 13
Appendix A Traceless reduction of symmetric tensors 16
Appendix B Multipole expansions of the effective curvature and jerk param- eters 17
– 1 – 1 Introduction
The Hubble-Lemaître law [1–3] describing the observed approximate proportional relationship z =H0dL between cosmological redshift z and luminosity distance dL in terms of the Hubble parameter H0 is one of the most groundbreaking discoveries made in cosmology. The empirical discovery of positive correlation between dL and z indicated the expansion of space itself, and cemented the use of dynamical space-time models to describe the Universe at cosmological scales. A century after its discovery the Hubble-Lemaître law (Hereafter referred to as the ‘Hubble law’) is widely used in cosmological analysis. Since its first formulation, the Hubble law1 has been generalised for a number of ap- plications. Within the Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) class of metrics, the geometrical expansion of the luminosity distance in redshift has been formulated [4]. The lu- minosity distance Hubble law has been considered for broader classes of geometries, including Lemaître-Tolman-Bondi models [5,6] and certain families of Szekeres cosmological models [7]. Series expansion of the Jacobi map around the vertex of an observer has been considered for arbitrary space-times [8] resulting in a general angular diameter distance expansion in the affine parameter along a light beam. Power series of cosmological distances in redshift have been obtained for general relativistic space-times [9, 10] and expressed using multipole expansions [11, 12]. The present paper builds on these results. Studies of distance–redshift relations in various anisotropic media – typically under the assumption of an FLRW ‘back- ground’ metric – have been made, e.g. [13–22]. Despite of some theoretical interest in the modelling of anisotropies, the isotropic ansatz is used for the vast majority of observational analysis, though see [23–26]. While a notion of statistical homogeneity and isotropy is indi- cated by the convergence of galaxy 2-point correlation function statistics [27, 28], large scale structures of sizes that extend hundreds of Megaparsecs in effective radii have been detected [29–32] along with coherent ‘bulk flow velocity’ on scales of several hundreds of Megaparsecs [33, 34]. In this paper we develop a model independent framework for taking into account the existence of cosmic structures in the analysis of distance–redshift data. As we shall detail, the proportionality law between redshift and distance as it was first hypothesised by Lemaître [1] and observed by Slipher and Hubble [2,3] emerges in the small redshift and isotropic limit of the luminosity distance in a general expanding space-time setting. In this paper we derive the expression for the luminosity distance ‘Hubble law’ as formulated in a general space-time geometry admitting such a series expansion, from which the form of the originally formulated Hubble law derives as a monopole approximation in the O(z) vicinity of the observer. The strength of the final expression for the general anisotropic Hubble law is its simple form given by a finite set of physically interpretable multipole coefficients, providing a new framework for observational analysis. In section2 we introduce a general time-like congruence and consider mutual distances defined between observers comoving with the congruence through their emission and absorp- tion of light rays. In section3 we present the general ‘Hubble law’: the series expansion of luminosity distance in redshift for general space-times admitting such a series expansion. Section4 contains the main result of this paper: we formulate the anisotropic coefficients of the general Hubble law in a multipole representation. In section5 we review the assumptions behind the derived results, and consider the effect of a special relativistic boost of the observer with respect to the frame of the smooth congruence description. We conclude in section6.
1In this paper, we use the term ‘Hubble law’ as meaning the series expansion of luminosity distance or angular diameter distance in redshift.
– 2 – Notation and conventions: Units are used in which c = 1. Greek letters µ, ν, . . . label space- time indices in a general basis. Einstein notation is used such that repeated indices are summed over. The signature of the spacetime metric gµν is (− + ++) and the connection ∇µ is the Levi-Civita connection. Round brackets () containing indices denote symmetrisation in the involved indices and square brackets [] denote anti-symmetrisation. Bold notation T µ1,µ2,..,µm for the basis-free representation of tensorial quantities Tν1,ν2,..,νn is used occasionally.
2 The cosmological observers and light bundles
We consider a time-like congruence governed by the tangent vector field u, representing the 4–velocity of reference observers and emitters in the space-time. We further consider an irrotational geodesic congruence of photons with affinely parametrised tangent vector k representing the 4–momentum of the light emitted and observed between members of the time-like congruence. It will be useful to decompose the photon 4–momentum field k in terms of the 4–velocity field u as follows µ µ µ µ k = E(u − e ) ,E ≡ −k uµ , (2.1) where e is a vector field orthogonal to u, and E is the energy of the photon congruence as inferred by observers comoving with u. The sign convention is such that e describes the spatial direction of observation of observers comoving with u, and we can think of e as a radial unit-vector when evaluated at the vertex point of the observer’s lightcone. We define the projection tensors ν ν ν ν ν ν ν hµ ≡ uµu + gµ , pµ ≡ uµu − eµe + gµ , (2.2) onto the 3–dimensional space orthogonal to u and the 2–dimensional screen space orthogonal to k and u respectively. The equations describing the deformation of the photon congruences are given by [35, 36] dθˆ 1 = − θˆ2 − σˆ σˆµν − kµkνR , (2.3) dλ 2 µν µν dˆσ µν = −θˆσˆ − p ρp σkαkβC , (2.4) dλ µν µ ν ρασβ d µ where the operation dλ ≡ k ∇µ is the directional derivative along the flow lines of the photon 4-momentum, where Rµν is the Ricci tensor of the space-time and Cµνρσ is the Weyl tensor, and where the decomposition of the expansion tensor of the null congruence 1 1 Θˆ ≡ p βp α∇ k = θpˆ +σ ˆ , θˆ ≡ ∇ kµ , σˆ ≡ p αp β∇ k − θpˆ (2.5) µν ν µ β α 2 µν µν µ µν µ ν α β 2 µν has been used. The variables θˆ and σˆµν describe the expansion and stretching of the con- gruence area as measured in the 2–dimensional screen space. The equations governing the geodesic deviation of the time-like congruence are [36] dθ 1 = − θ2 − σ σµν + ω ωµν − uµuνR + D aµ + a aµ , (2.6) dτ 3 µν µν µν µ µ dσ 2 1 µν = − θσ − σ σα + ω ωα − uρuσC − R dτ 3 µν αhµ νi αhµ νi ρµσν 2 hµνi α + Dhµaνi + ahµaνi + 2a σα(νuµ) , (2.7) dω 2 µν = − θω + 2σα ω − D a − 2aαω u , (2.8) dτ 3 µν [µ ν]α [µ ν] α[µ ν]
– 3 – d µ µ ν µ where dτ ≡ u ∇µ is the directional derivative along the flow lines of u, where a ≡ u ∇νu is the 4–acceleration field, where the spatial covariant derivative Dµ is defined through its γ1,γ2,..,γm acting on a tensor field Tν1,ν2,..,νn :
D T γ1,γ2,..,γm ≡ h α1 h α2 ..h αn h γ1 h γ2 ..h γm h σ∇ T β1,β2,..,βm , (2.9) µ ν1,ν2,..,νn ν1 ν2 νn β1 β2 βn µ σ α1,α2,..,αn and where we have used the decomposition 1 Θ ≡ h βh α∇ u = θh + σ + ω , µν ν µ β α 3 µν µν µν µ β α θ ≡ ∇µu , σµν ≡ ∇hνuµi , ωµν ≡ hν hµ ∇[βuα] . (2.10)
The operation hi around indices selects the tracefree symmetric part of the spatial projection, α β 1 αβ i.e., Ahµνi ≡ h(µhν)Aαβ − 3 hµνh Aαβ. The expansion scalar θ describes the expansion rate of the congruence, the shear term σµν describes its stretching, and the vorticity ωµν describes its rotation. The evolution equations (2.3)–(2.4) and (2.6)–(2.8) are purely geoemetrical and follow from the Ricci identity. The evolution of the energy function E along the flow lines of k can be formulated in terms of projected dynamical variables of u in the following way dE 1 = −kµ∇ (kνu ) = −E2H , H ≡ θ − eµa + eµeνσ . (2.11) dλ µ ν 3 µ µν We note that H is a truncated multipole series in the spatial unit vector e, which will be important for the multipole decomposition of the general Hubble law derived in section4. We now describe cosmological distance measures defined between observers and emitters comoving with u. The angular diameter distance dA of an astronomical source – describing the physical size of an object relative to the angular measure it subtends on the sky of a reference observer – is defined as [37]
δA d2 ≡ , (2.12) A δΩ where δA is the proper area of the object perpendicular to the 4–velocity u of the emitting congruence and the 4–momentum k of the lightbeam, and δΩ is the subtended angular ele- ment. The evolution of the angular diameter distance along the photon congruence is given by the expansion rate of the null congruence dd 1 A = θdˆ , (2.13) dλ 2 A and the second derivative of dA can be rewritten using (2.3), yielding the focusing equation [35, 38] d2d 1 A = − σˆ2 + kµkνR d . (2.14) dλ2 2 µν A Assuming the conservation of photons it follows from Etherington’s reciprocity theorem [39, 40] that the luminosity distance between a source and an observer r L d ≡ , (2.15) L 4πF
– 4 – is related to the angular diameter distance in the following way
2 E dL = (1 + z) dA , 1 + z ≡ , (2.16) Eo where L is the bolometric luminosity of the source, F is the bolometric flux of energy as measured by the observer, E is the photon energy in the frame of the emitter, Eo is the photon energy measured at the vertex point o of the observer’s lightcone, and z is the associated redshift.
3 The luminosity distance Hubble law
In this section we formulate the series expansion of luminosity distance in redshift to third order in the general case: we make no restrictions on the observer congruence or the curvature of space-time other than the regularity requirements implied by Taylor’s theorem. Let λ be µ an affine function along the null rays of the photon congruence satisfying k ∇µλ = 1. We expand the angular diameter distance around the point of observation2 o in the following way
2 3 ddA 1 d dA 2 1 d dA 3 4 dA = dA|o+ ∆λ + ∆λ + ∆λ + O(∆λ ) , (3.1) dλ o 2 dλ2 o 6 dλ3 o where ∆λ ≡ λ − λo, and where the subscript o denotes evaluation at the vertex point. We can invoke the initial conditions [8]
∂ 1 dd A dA|o= 0 , kdA = = −1 , σˆµν|o = 0 , (3.2) ∂τ o Eo dλ o
∂ µ d where ∂S |k ≡ (1/k ∇µS) dλ denotes the derivative with respect to the scalar function S along µ the flow lines of k. The function τ is the proper time parameter of u defined from u ∇µτ = 1 µ µ and h ν∇µτ|o = 0, so that k ∇µτ|o = Eo follows from the decomposition (2.1). The first initial condition of (3.2) ensures that the area measure tends to zero at the observer, while the second requirement ensures that the area measure reduces to the Euclidian one near a point. The third condition states that the shear rate σˆµν tends to zero at the focus point of the null rays and results from the Minkowski limiting description around a single space-time point. The divergence of the expansion rate of the photon congruence θˆ at the observer position o reflects the caustic nature of the vertex point [8, 41]. From the initial conditions in (3.2) it follows immediately that the first two coefficients in the series expansion (3.1) read dA|o= 0 ddA and dλ |o = −Eo. Further, using (2.14) together with the first and third initial conditions 2 d dA µ ν of (3.2) we have dλ2 |o = 0, assuming that k k Rµν is non-singular at the vertex point. Computing the directional derivative of both sides of (2.14) along the direction of k gives 3 d dA 1 µ ν µ ν dλ3 |o = 2 Eok k Rµν, assuming that the derivative of k k Rµν and σˆµν are non-singular at the vertex point. Thus, the series expansion (3.1) reduces to
1 µ ν 3 4 dA = −Eo∆λ + Eok k Rµν ∆λ + O(∆λ ) . (3.3) 12 o 2The series expansion is defined along the individual null rays, which can be labelled uniquely by the direction vector eo, and the coefficients of the series expansion have implicit dependence on the direction vector eo. This dependence reflects the anisotropy of the local space-time neighbourhood relative to the observer at o.
– 5 – We can rewrite ∆λ in terms of its expansion in z, assuming that the function λ 7→ z(λ) is invertible3: 2 3 ∂ 1 ∂ 2 1 ∂ 3 4 ∆λ = λ z + λ z + λ z + O(z ) , (3.4) ∂z k o 2 ∂z2 k o 6 ∂z3 k o where zo = 0 per definition. We can find the coefficients of the expansion (3.4) by using (2.11), which gives ∂ 1 1
kλ = µ = − , ∂z o k ∇µz o EoHo d 1 ! 2 µ dH ∂ dλ k ∇µz 2 1 1 dλ 2 kλ = µ = − −1 + 2 , ∂z o k ∇µz EoHo 2 Eo H o o d 1 µ d dλ k ∇µz 2 2 ! 3 µ dH dH d H ∂ dλ k ∇µz 6 1 1 1 1 1 2 dλ dλ dλ 3 kλ = µ = − 1 − 2 + 2 4 − 2 3 ,(3.5) ∂z o k ∇µz EoHo Eo H o 2 E H o 6 E H o o o o ∂ 1 d where it has been used that = µ from the definition given below equation (3.2), ∂z k k ∇µz dλ and where the definition of z in (2.16) has been invoked. We can now use the coefficients in (3.5) together with (3.3) and (3.4) to obtain a third order expansion of dA in redshift:
(1) (2) 2 (3) 3 4 dA = dA z + dA z + dA z + O(z ) , ! 1 1 1 1 dH (1) (2) dλ dA ≡ , dA ≡ −1 + 2 , Ho Ho 2 Eo H o
dH dH 2 d2H µ ν ! 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 k k R d(3) ≡ 1 − dλ + dλ − dλ − µν , (3.6) A 2 2 4 2 3 2 2 Ho Eo H o 2 Eo H o 6 Eo H o 12 Eo H o where we have plugged in (3.4) in (3.3) and kept terms up till third order in z. It is convenient to write an analogous taylor series of the luminosity distance in redshift
(1) (2) 2 (3) 3 4 dL = dL z + dL z + dL z + O(z ) , (3.7) where the coefficients can be formulated in terms of the coefficients of the expansion of the angular diameter distance (3.6) by invoking the first relation in (2.16), and from using the (1) (1) first initial condition of (3.2). This yields the first order coefficient dL = dA , the second (2) (2) (1) (3) (3) (2) (1) order coefficient dL = dA + 2dA and the third order coefficient dL = dA + 2dA + dA . Using the expressions (3.6) in these expressions for the coefficients, we finally have: ! 1 1 1 1 dH (1) (2) dλ dL ≡ , dL ≡ 1 + 2 , Ho Ho 2 Eo H o