Azimuthal geodesics in closed FLRW cosmological models

Abstract

We study geodesics in Friedmann-Lema{\^ı}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) cosmological models and give the full set of solutions. For azimuthal geodesics, in a closed universe, we give the angular distance travelled by a test particle moving along such a geodesic during one cycle of expansion and re-collapse of the universe. We extend previous results regarding the path followed by light rays to the two-fluid case, also including a cosmological constant, as well as to massive test particles. Our work contains various new results and explicit formulae, often using special functions which naturally appear in this setting.

24 pages, 3 figures; v2 matches version published in Phys. Rev. D