On the spherical collapse model in dark energy cosmologies

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 421, Number 1, July I 2004


Page(s)		71 - 81
Section		Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies)
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041090

A&A 421, 71-81 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041090

On the spherical collapse model in dark energy cosmologies

D. F. Mota and C. van de Bruck

Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, OX1 3RH, UK
e-mail: mota@astro.ox.ac.uk; cvdb@astro.ox.ac.uk

(Received 23 January 2004 / Accepted 30 March 2004)

Abstract
We study the spherical collapse model in dark energy cosmologies, in which dark energy is modelled as a minimally coupled scalar field. We first follow the standard assumption that dark energy does not cluster on the scales of interest. Investigating four different popular potentials in detail, we show that the predictions of the spherical collapse model depend on the potential used. We also investigate the dependence on the initial conditions. Secondly, we investigate in how far perturbations in the quintessence field affect the predictions of the spherical collapse model. In doing so, we assume that the field collapses along with the dark matter. Although the field is still subdominant at the time of virialisation, the predictions are different from the case of a homogeneous dark energy component. This will in particular be true if the field is non-minimally coupled. We conclude that a better understanding of the evolution of dark energy in the highly non-linear regime is needed in order to make predictions using the spherical collapse model in models with dark energy.

Key words: cosmology: theory -- cosmology: large-scale structure of Universe -- cosmology: miscellaneous

Offprint request: C. van de Bruck, cvdb@astro.ox.ac.uk

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