Second-order cosmological perturbations. III. Produced by scalar-scalar coupling during radiation-dominated stage

Abstract

We study the 2nd-order scalar, vector and tensor metric perturbations in Robertson-Walker (RW) spacetime in synchronous coordinates during the radiation dominated (RD) stage. The dominant radiation is modeled by a relativistic fluid described by a stress tensor $T_{\mu\nu}=(\rho+p)U_\mu U_\nu+g_{\mu\nu}p$ with $p= c^2_s \rho$, and the 1st-order velocity is assumed to be curlless. We analyze the solutions of 1st-order perturbations, upon which the solutions of 2nd-order perturbation are based. We show that the 1st-order tensor modes propagate at the speed of light and are truly radiative, but the scalar and vector modes do not. The 2nd-order perturbed Einstein equation contains various couplings of 1st-order metric perturbations, and the scalar-scalar coupling is considered in this paper. We decompose the 2nd-order Einstein equation into the evolution equations of 2nd-order scalar, vector, and tensor perturbations, and the energy and momentum constraints. The coupling terms and the stress tensor of the fluid together serve as the effective source for the 2nd-order metric perturbations. The equation of covariant conservation of stress tensor is also needed to determine $\rho$ and $U^\mu$. By solving this set of equations up to 2nd order analytically, we obtain the 2nd-order integral solutions of all the metric perturbations, density contrast and velocity. To use these solutions in applications, one needs to carry out seven types of the numerical integrals. We perform the residual gauge transformations between synchronous coordinates up to 2nd order, and identify the gauge-invariant modes of 2nd-order solutions.