Bianchi IX structure formation and the Cosmic Web Crystal: Ising model for Large Scale Structures
Speaker: Dr Leonardo Giani
Affiliation: University of Queensland
Abstract
One of the most striking successes of the standard cosmological model, the ΛCDM, is its ability to describe how the initially small perturbations of the isotropic early Universe evolved into the large scale structures we observe today. If the process of gravitational collapse from which these structures formed is described by the Bianchi IX geometry, these objects may inherit an intrinsic spin independently from their orbital angular momentum (just like particles in quantum mechanics). Under this assumption, we argue that a formal analogy exists between the cosmic web at late times and a cristal of fermions submerged in a thermal reservoir with temperature proportional to the rate of expansion of the Universe. We explore the phenomenological implications that would arise from this picture if the Cosmic Web at late times undergoes a phase transition towards (the gravitational equivalent of) a ferromagnetic state, described qualitatively using the Ising model in the mean field approximation.
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