Gauge fixing in cosmological perturbations of Unimodular Gravity

With focus on the cosmological evolution of linear perturbations of matter and geometry, we calculate the equivalent expressions to that of the Newtonian and Synchronous gauges within the framework of Unimodular Gravity, being these two gauges commonly used and implemented in Boltzmann codes. An important aspect of our analysis is the inclusion of the energy-momentum current violation, as well as its perturbations. Moreover, for the first time we demonstrate that it is possible to fix both gauges consistently, although as it has been already noticed in previous literature, neither of them is recovered in the sense of the dynamics given in General Relativity for matter and metric fluctuations. Specifically, we show that since the unimodular constraint at the level of linear perturbations lead to only one degree of freedom of scalar modes of metric fluctuations, the dynamics in Unimodular Gravity forces to keep the anisotropic stress in the Newtonian gauge, whereas the cold dark matter comoving frame can not be set in the Synchronous gauge. The physical implications on the density contrast of cold dark matter is reviewed, and the Sachs-Wolfe effect is obtained and compared with previous results in the literature of cosmological perturbations in Unimodular Gravity.

Automated summary

In this study, we focus on the cosmological evolution of linear perturbations of matter and geometry within the framework of Unimodular Gravity. We calculate the equivalent expressions to the commonly used Newtonian and Synchronous gauges. Our analysis shows that Unimodular Gravity requires maintaining anisotropic stress in the Newtonian gauge and does not allow for setting the cold dark matter comoving frame in the Synchronous gauge.