No Arabic abstract
We find the general conditions for viable cosmological solution at the background level in bigravity models. Furthermore, we constrain the parameters by comparing to the Union 2.1 supernovae catalog and identify, in some cases analytically, the best fit parameter or the degeneracy curve among pairs of parameters. We point out that a bimetric model with a single free parameter predicts a simple relation between the equation of state and the density parameter, fits well the supernovae data and is a valid and testable alternative to $Lambda$CDM. Additionally, we identify the conditions for a phantom behavior and show that viable bimetric cosmologies cannot cross the phantom divide.
We perform a detailed dynamical analysis of various cosmological scenarios in extended (varying-mass) nonlinear massive gravity. Due to the enhanced freedom in choosing the involved free functions, this cosmological paradigm allows for a huge variety of solutions that can attract the universe at late times, comparing to scalar-field cosmology or usual nonlinear massive gravity. Amongst others, it accepts quintessence, phantom, or cosmological-constant-like late-time solutions, which moreover can alleviate the coincidence problem. These features seem to be general and non-sensitive to the imposed ansantzes and model parameters, and thus extended nonlinear massive gravity can be a good candidate for the description of nature.
Bimetric gravity is a ghost-free and observationally viable extension of general relativity, exhibiting both a massless and a massive graviton. The observed abundances of light elements can be used to constrain the expansion history of the Universe at the period of Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Applied to bimetric gravity, we readily obtain constraints on the theory parameters which are complementary to other observational probes. For example, the mixing angle between the two gravitons must satisfy $theta lesssim 18^circ$ in the graviton mass range $m_mathrm{FP} gtrsim 10^{-16} , mathrm{eV}/c^2$, representing a factor of two improvement compared with other cosmological probes.
We investigate the cosmological perturbations in f(T) gravity. Examining the pure gravitational perturbations in the scalar sector using a diagonal vierbien, we extract the corresponding dispersion relation, which provides a constraint on the f(T) ansatzes that lead to a theory free of instabilities. Additionally, upon inclusion of the matter perturbations, we derive the fully perturbed equations of motion, and we study the growth of matter overdensities. We show that f(T) gravity with f(T) constant coincides with General Relativity, both at the background as well as at the first-order perturbation level. Applying our formalism to the power-law model we find that on large subhorizon scales (O(100 Mpc) or larger), the evolution of matter overdensity will differ from LCDM cosmology. Finally, examining the linear perturbations of the vector and tensor sectors, we find that (for the standard choice of vierbein) f(T) gravity is free of massive gravitons.
Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the universe. We review recent developments in modified gravity theories, focusing on higher dimensional approaches and chameleon/f(R) theories. We classify these models in terms of the screening mechanisms that enable such theories to approach general relativity on small scales (and thus satisfy solar system constraints). We describe general features of the modified Friedman equation in such theories. The second half of this review describes experimental tests of gravity in light of the new theoretical approaches. We summarize the high precision tests of gravity on laboratory and solar system scales. We describe in some detail tests on astrophysical scales ranging from ~kpc (galaxy scales) to ~Gpc (large-scale structure). These tests rely on the growth and inter-relationship of perturbations in the metric potentials, density and velocity fields which can be measured using gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster abundances, galaxy clustering and the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. A robust way to interpret observations is by constraining effective parameters, such as the ratio of the two metric potentials. Currently tests of gravity on astrophysical scales are in the early stages --- we summarize these tests and discuss the interesting prospects for new tests in the coming decade.
In this paper we investigate possible solutions to the coincidence problem in flat phantom dark energy models with a constant dark energy equation of state and quintessence models with a linear scalar field potential. These models are representative of a broader class of cosmological scenarios in which the universe has a finite lifetime. We show that, in the absence of anthropic constraints, including a prior probability for the models inversely proportional to the total lifetime of the universe excludes models very close to the $Lambda {rm CDM}$ model. This relates a cosmological solution to the coincidence problem with a dynamical dark energy component having an equation of state parameter not too close to -1 at the present time. We further show, that anthropic constraints, if they are sufficiently stringent, may solve the coincidence problem without the need for dynamical dark energy.