Issue |
A&A
Volume 659, March 2022
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A108 | |
Number of page(s) | 14 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142103 | |
Published online | 15 March 2022 |
Nonideal self-gravity and cosmology: Importance of correlations in the dynamics of the large-scale structures of the Universe
1
Maison de la Simulation, CEA, CNRS, Univ. Paris-Sud, UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: pascal.tremblin@cea.fr
2
Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CRAL, UMR CNRS 5574, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France
3
Astrophysics Group, University of Exeter, EX4 4QL Exeter, UK
Received:
28
August
2021
Accepted:
9
December
2021
Aims. Inspired by the statistical mechanics of an ensemble of interacting particles (BBGKY hierarchy), we propose to account for small-scale inhomogeneities in self-gravitating astrophysical fluids by deriving a nonideal virial theorem and nonideal Navier-Stokes equations. These equations involve the pair radial distribution function (similar to the two-point correlation function used to characterize the large-scale structures of the Universe), similarly to the interaction energy and equation of state in liquids. Within this framework, small-scale correlations lead to a nonideal amplification of the gravitational interaction energy, whose omission leads to a missing mass problem, for instance, in galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Methods. We propose to use a decomposition of the gravitational potential into a near- and far-field component in order to account for the gravitational force and correlations in the thermodynamics properties of the fluid. Based on the nonideal virial theorem, we also propose an extension of the Friedmann equations in the nonideal regime and use numerical simulations to constrain the contribution of these correlations to the expansion and acceleration of the Universe.
Results. We estimate that the nonideal amplification factor of the gravitational interaction energy of the baryons lies between 5 and 20, potentially explaining the observed value of the Hubble parameter (since the uncorrelated energy accounts for ∼5%). Within this framework, the acceleration of the expansion emerges naturally because the number of substructures induced by gravitational collapse increases, which in turn increases their contribution to the total gravitational energy. A simple estimate predicts a nonideal deceleration parameter qni ≃ −1; this is potentially the first determination of the observed value based on an intuitively physical argument. We also suggest that small-scale gravitational interactions in bound structures (spiral arms or local clustering) could yield a transition to a viscous regime that can lead to flat rotation curves. This transition could also explain the dichotomy between (Keplerian) low surface brightness elliptical galaxy and (nonkeplerian) spiral galaxy rotation profiles. Overall, our results demonstrate that nonideal effects induced by inhomogeneities must be taken into account, potentially with our formalism, in order to properly determine the gravitational dynamics of galaxies and the large-scale Universe.
Key words: equation of state / gravitation / cosmology: theory
© P. Tremblin et al. 2022
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.