Slides of 5 lectures at XV Brazilian School on Cosmology and ...

Back to first principles. . .Standard approach assumes single global FLRW frameplus Newtonian perturb<strong>at</strong>ionsIn absence <strong>of</strong> exact background symmetries,Newtonian approxim<strong>at</strong>ion requires a weak fieldapproxim<strong>at</strong>ion about suitable st<strong>at</strong>ic Minkowski frameWh<strong>at</strong> is the largest scale on which the StrongEquivalence Principle can be applied?Need to address Mach’s principle: “Local inertial framesare determined through the distributions <strong>of</strong> energy andmomentum in the universe by some weighted average<strong>of</strong> the apparent motions”How does coarse-graining affect rel<strong>at</strong>ive calibr<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong>clocks and rods, from local to global, to account foraverage effects <strong>of</strong> gravity?15th <strong>Brazilian</strong> <strong>School</strong> on Cosmology and Gravit<strong>at</strong>ion, August 2012 – p.42/143