Growth index with the exact analytic solution of sub-horizon scale linear perturbation for dark energy models with constant equation of state

Three decades ago Heath found the integral form of the exact analytic growing mode solution of the linear density perturbation S on sub-horizon scales including the cosmological constant or the curvature term. Recently, we obtained the exact analytic form of this solution in our previous work [1]. Interestingly, we are able to extend this solution for general dark energy models with the constant equation of state omega(de) in a flat universe. This analytic solution provides the accurate and efficient tools for probing the properties of dark energy models such as the behavior of the growth factor and the growth index. We investigate the growth index and its parameter at any epoch with this exact solution for different dark energy models and find that the growth index is quite model dependent in the redshift space, 0.25 <= z <= 1.5, so observations of the structure growth around this epoch would be very interesting. Also one may be able to rule out some dark energy models by using the analysis from this exact solution. Thus, the analytic solution for the growth factor provides the very useful tools for future observations to constrain the exact values of observational quantities at any epoch related to the growth factor in the dark energy models. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.