Perturbations in the interacting vacuum

Abstract

In this study, we present the evolution of cosmological perturbations in a universe consisting of standard matter and interacting vacuum. We use the 1 + 3 covariant formalism in perturbation framework and consider two different models for the interacting vacuum; namely, a linear interacting model and interaction with creation pressure model. For both models, we derive the evolution equations governing the growth of linear perturbations for both radiation- and dust-dominated universe. We find numerical solutions in appropriate limits, namely long and short wavelengths. For both models, the perturbations grow with time (decay with redshift), showing that structure formation is possible in an accelerated cosmic background. The perturbation amplitudes — and their relative scalings with those of [Formula: see text]CDM — depend on the values of the interaction parameters considered, and in a way that can be used to constrain the models using existing and future large-scale structure data. In the vanishing limits of the coupling parameters of the interaction, we show that standard [Formula: see text]CDM cosmology, both background and perturbed, is recovered.