Ellipsoidal collapse and previrialization

Abstract

We study the non-linear evolution of a dust ellipsoid,embedded in a Friedmann flat background universe, in order to determine the evolution of the density of the ellipsoid as the perturbation to it related detaches from general expansion and begins to collapse. We show that while the growth rate of the density contrast of a mass element is enhanced by the shear in agreement with Hoffman (1986a), the angular momentum acquired by the ellipsoid has the right magnitude to counterbalance the effect of the shear. The result confirms the previrialization conjecture (Peebles & Groth 1976; Davis & Peebles 1977; Peebles 1990) by showing that initial asphericities and tidal interactions begin to slow down the collapse after the system has broken away from the general expansion.