AdS Perturbations

xTras has a number of functions that allow for perturbations around (A)dS backgrounds. Before discussing them, we'll first have a look at the basic functionality provided in the native xAct package xPert.

xPert functions

Perturbation[expr,n]returns the nth order perturbation of expr
ExpandPerturbation[expr]expand any unexpanded Perturbation[tensor] terms in expr
DefTensorPerturbation[pert,tens,M]defines the perturbation pert for the tensor tens on the manifold M
DeMetricPerturbation[g,pert,par]defines the perturbation pert of the metric g and the perturbations of the associated curvature tensors, with expansion parameter par

Main xPert functions.

Expression can be perturbed with Perturbation:
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This gives the unexpanded perturbations of the input expressions, unless the input is a tensor for which a perturbation is defined. xTras automatically defines a metric perturbation (see the tutorial Metric Variations), hence the perturbation of the metric returned the perturbation tensor .
The unexanded perturbations can be expanded with ExpandPerturbation:
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This expanded the expressions in terms of any defined tensor perturbations, in this case . The covariant derivatives and the curvature tensors are now those of the background. They can easily be replaced with particular background values with the help of xTras functions.

xTras additions

We'll now turn the xTras functions tailor-made for doing perturbations around (A)dS backgrounds.
SymmetricSpaceRules[cd,K]produces replacement rules for the curvature tensors of the covariant derivative cd on a symmetric space of constant curvature K
ToBackground[expr]sends unperturbed (curvature) tensors to background values
ExpandBackground[expr]returns the perbutation expansion of expr on an arbitrary background

The main functions for doing AdS perturbations.

Setting up

In this section we will set up things to do perturbations around AdS. First, begin with defining a constant symbol for the cosmological constant.
Next, compute the equations of motion for the Einstein-Hilbert term plus a cosmological constant with VarL.
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Now make rules for the background solution of these equations of motion with SymmetricSpaceRules:
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Check that the background actually solves the equations of motion:
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We now set this background to the default background solution of ToBackground. It then also becomes the default background for PerturbBackground and ExpandBackground.
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Checking that the background solves the equations of motion can now be done with ToBackground:
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Linearizing the equations of motion

We can now expand the equations of motion on this background with ExpandBackground, in order to obtain the linearized Einstein equations:
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The tensor has a first index that labels the perturbation order. Often, it is convenient to remove this label. To that end, we define a new tensor that we will use as the metric perturbation.
We can now replace with this new tensor:
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This process of replacing with can be automated by setting another option of ToBackground. The second rule below is for eliminating all higher order perturbations.
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Expanding on the background now automatically replaces with :
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Linearizing the action

Instead of perturbing the equations of motion, we can also perturb the action. Of course, the first non-trivial order here is not the first, but the second.
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When we vary the linear action with respect to , we should obtain the linearized equations of motion:
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The difference between the two equations of motion is zero:
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