Revisiting geodesic observers in cosmology

Abstract: Geodesic observers in cosmology are revisited. The coordinates based on freely falling observers introduced by Gautreau in de Sitter and Einstein-de Sitter spaces (and, previously, by Gautreau and Hoffmann in Schwarzschild space) are extended to general FLRW universes. We identify situations in which the relation between geodesic and comoving coordinates can be expressed explicitly in terms of elementary functions. In general, geodesic coordinates in cosmology turn out to be rather cumbersome and limited to the region below the apparent horizon.