Propagation of self-gravitating density waves in the deDonder gauge on a gravitational background field

Abstract

Arguments are given for using the deDonder instead of the synchronous gauge in describing the propagation of density perturbations in a preexisting gravitational field. Since in the deDonder gauge the corresponding reference frame is fixed on the background, the physical interpretation of results is obvious, while in the synchronous gauge it is at least very difficult to extract the physical consequences from the results. For the propagation of density perturbations, with large spatial extension, a decisive difference is found between the two gauges. While in the synchronous gauge there is a growing mode in the density contrast (at least for adiabatic perturbations on a background matter substratum withp∼ρ as equation of state), in the deDonder gauge there is not. The calculation in deDonder gauge leads to upper boundaries for the spatial extension of unstable density perturbations, and thus may give a hint for upper boundaries of galaxy masses.