Abstract
The role of gravitational energy in the evolution of the universe is examined. In co-moving coordinates, calculation of the Landau-Lifshitz pseudotensor for FRW models reveals that: (i) the total energy of a spatially closed universe irrespective of the equation of state of the cosmic fluid is zero at all times, (ii) the total energy enclosed within any finite volume of the spatially flat universe is zero at all times, (iii) during inflation the vacuum energy driving the accelerated expansion and ultimately responsible for the creation of matter (radiation) in the universe, is drawn from the energy of the gravitational field. In a similar fashion, certain cosmological models which abandon adiabaticity by allowing for particle creation, use the gravitational energy directly as an energy source.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Guth, A. H. (1991). InThe Oscar Klein Memorial Lectures, Vol. 2, ed. G. Ekspang (World Scientific, Singapore).
Hawking, S. W. (1988).A Brief History of Time (Bantam, New York).
Guth, A. H. (1981).Phys. Rev. B 23, 347; Linde, A. D. (1982).Phys. Lett. 108B, 389; (1983).Phys. Lett. 129B, 177; (1990).Particle Physics and Inflationary Cosmology (Harwood, Chur, Switzerland); Albrecht, A., and Steinhardt, P. J. (1982)Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1220.
Prigogine, I., Gunzig, E., and Geheniau, J. (1987).Nature 330, 621; Prigogine, I., Gunzig, E., Geheniau, J., and Nardone, P. (1989).Gen. Rel. Grav. 21, 767.
Landau, L. D., and Lifshitz, E. M. (1962).The Classical Theory of Fields (Pergamon, Oxford).
Misner, C. W., Thorne, K. S., and Wheeler, J. A. (1973).Gravitation (W. H. Freeman, San Francisco).
Cooperstock, F. I. (1992).Found. Phys. 22, 1011.
Cooperstock, F. I. (1994).Gen. Rel. Grav. 26, 323.
Rosen, N. (1994).Gen. Rel. Grav. 26, 319.
Johri, V. B., Kalligas, D., Singh, G. P., and Everitt, C. W. F. (1993). InProc. Second William Fairbank Conference, ed. A. Vu and P. Michelson (World Scientific, Singapore).
Johri, V. B., and Kalyani Desikan, (1991).J. Math. Phys. Sci. 25, 567.
Zel'dovich, Ya. B. (1963).Sov. Phys. JETP 16, 732.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Johri, V.B., Kalligas, D., Singh, G.P. et al. Gravitational energy in the expanding universe. Gen Relat Gravit 27, 313–318 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02109127
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02109127