Discrete Newtonian cosmology: perturbations

Abstract

In a previous paper (Gibbons and Ellis 2014 Discrete Newtonian cosmology Class. Quantum Grav. 31 025003), we showed how a finite system of discrete particles interacting with each other via Newtonian gravitational attraction would lead to precisely the same dynamical equations for homothetic motion as in the case of the pressure-free Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmological models of general relativity theory, provided the distribution of particles obeys the central configuration equation. In this paper we show that one can obtain perturbed such Newtonian solutions that give the same linearized structure growth equations as in the general relativity case. We also obtain the Dmitriev–Zel’dovich equations for subsystems in this discrete gravitational model, and show how it leads to the conclusion that voids have an apparent negative mass.