HEP Theory Journal Club

Quasilocal energy and its cosmological applications

Valerio Faraoni

Bishop's University

The (rather formal) concept of Hawking quasilocal mass can be applied to cosmology. The first application is to simulations of large scale structures, which are Newtonian even though the size of the box used exceeds the Hubble radius. The Hawking mass splits into a “Newtonian” local part and a “relativistic” part due to the cosmological background. The Newtonian part quickly comes to dominate, supporting the validity of Newtonian simulations. The same splitting is then applied to the turnaround radius of a large structure in the accelerated era, introducing a small correction and a clarification of the “mass” concept used in previous literature. Finally, the splitting is applied to the old debate on lensing by the cosmological constant.