Structure formation with a self-tuning scalar field

Abstract

A scalar field with an exponential potential has the particular property that it is attracted into a solution in which its energy scales as the dominant component (radiation or matter) of the Universe, contributing a fixed fraction of the total energy density. We study the growth of perturbations in a CDM dominated $Ω=1$ universe with this extra field, with an initial flat spectrum of adiabatic fluctuations. The observational constraints from structure formation are satisfied as well, or better, than in other models, with a contribution to the energy density from the scalar field $Ω_φ\sim 0.1$ which is small enough to be consistent with entry into the attractor prior to nucleosynthesis.

Figures (2)

• Figure 1: Mass variance per unit $\ln k$ computed from Boltzman code for different models compared with that inferred from a compilation of galaxy surveys PD
• Figure 2: Comparison of different model predictions to current experimental data. All models were COBE normalized and are labeled as in Figure 1.