Linear and Second-Order Evolution of Cosmic Baryon Perturbations below 10^6 Solar Masses

Abstract

Studies of the growth of cosmic perturbations are typically focused on galactic scales and above. In this paper we investigate the evolution of perturbations in baryons, photons, and dark matter for masses below 10^6 M_\odot (or wavenumbers above 100 Mpc^-1). Fluctuations on these scales are of interest and importance because they grow to become the earliest collapsed objects and provide the first light sources in the so called dark ages. We investigate both the linear evolution and the second-order nonlinear effects arising from the coupling of large-scale velocity fields to small-scale perturbations in the baryon density and the electron ionization fraction. We find that this second order nonlinear coupling dominates the growth of perturbations with masses \la 10^3 M_\odot immediately after recombination, enhancing the baryon fluctuation amplitudes by a factor of ~ 5, but the nonlinear effect does not persist at late times.

21 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

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