The recursion relation in Lagrangian perturbation theory

Abstract

We derive a recursion relation in the framework of Lagrangian perturbation theory, appropriate for studying the inhomogeneities of the large scale structure of the universe. We use the fact that the perturbative expansion of the matter density contrast is in one-to-one correspondence with standard perturbation theory (SPT) at any order. This correspondence has been recently shown to be valid up to fourth order for a non-relativistic, irrotational and dust-like component. Assuming it to be valid at arbitrary (higher) order, we express the Lagrangian displacement field in terms of the perturbative kernels of SPT, which are itself given by their own and well-known recursion relation. We argue that the Lagrangian solution always contains more non-linear information in comparison with the SPT solution, (mainly) if the non-perturbative density contrast is restored after the displacement field is obtained.