No Arabic abstract
We revisit spatially flat FLRW cosmology in light of recent advances in standard model relativistic fluid dynamics. Modern fluid dynamics requires the presence of curvature-matter terms in the energy-momentum tensor for consistency. These terms are linear in the Ricci scalar and tensor, such that the corresponding cosmological model is referred to as ``Ricci cosmology. No cosmological constant is included, there are no inflaton fields, bulk viscosity is assumed to be zero and we only employ standard Einstein gravity. Analytic solutions to Ricci cosmology are discussed, and we find that it is possible to support an early-time inflationary universe using only well-known ingredients from the Standard Model of physics and geometric properties of space-time.
Recently, a new cosmological framework, dubbed Ricci Cosmology, has been proposed. Such a framework has emerged from the study of relativistic dynamics of fluids out of equilibrium in a curved background and is characterised by the presence of deviations from the equilibrium pressure in the energy-momentum tensor which are due to linear terms in the Ricci scalar and the Ricci tensor. The coefficients in front of such terms are called the second order transport coefficients and they parametrise the fluid response to the pressure terms arising from the spacetime curvature. Under the preliminary assumption that the second order transport coefficients are constant, we find the simplest solution of Ricci cosmology in which the presence of pressure terms causes a departure from the perfect fluid redshift scaling for matter components filling the Universe. In order to test the viability of this solution, we make four different ans{a}tze on the transport coefficients, giving rise to four different cases of our model. On the physical ground of the second law of thermodynamics for fluids with non-equilibrium pressure, we find some theoretical bounds (priors) on the parameters of the models. Our main concern is then the check of each of the case against the standard set of cosmological data in order to obtain the observational bounds on the second order transport coefficients. We find those bounds also realising that Ricci cosmology model is compatible with $Lambda$CDM cosmology for all the ans{a}tze.
We present a model of holographic dark energy in which the Infrared cutoff is determined by both the Ricci and the Gauss-Bonnet invariants. Such a construction has the significant advantage that the Infrared cutoff, and consequently the holographic dark energy density, does not depend on the future or the past evolution of the universe, but only on its current features, and moreover it is determined by invariants, whose role is fundamental in gravitational theories. We extract analytical solutions for the behavior of the dark energy density and equation-of-state parameters as functions of the redshift. These reveal the usual thermal history of the universe, with the sequence of radiation, matter and dark energy epochs, resulting in the future to a complete dark energy domination. The corresponding dark energy equation-of-state parameter can lie in the quintessence or phantom regime, or experience the phantom-divide crossing during the cosmological evolution, and its asymptotic value can be quintessence-like, phantom-like, or be exactly equal to the cosmological-constant value. Finally, we extract the constraints on the model parameters that arise from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.
We present a short review of possible applications of the Wheeler-De Witt equation to cosmological models based on the low-energy string effective action, and characterised by an initial regime of asymptotically flat, low energy, weak coupling evolution. Considering in particular a class of duality-related (but classically disconnected) background solutions, we shall discuss the possibility of quantum transitions between the phases of pre-big bang and post-big bang evolution. We will show that it is possible, in such a context, to represent the birth of our Universe as a quantum process of tunneling or anti-tunneling from an initial state asymptotically approaching the string perturbative vacuum.
Recently, Amendola et al. proposed a geometrical theory of gravity containing higher-order derivative terms. The authors introduced anticurvature scalar $(A)$, which is the trace of the inverse of the Ricci tensor ($A^{mu u} = R_{mu u}^{-1}$). In this work, we consider two classes of Ricci-inverse -- Class I and Class II -- models. Class I models are of the form $f(R, A)$ where $f$ is a function of Ricci and anticurvature scalars. Class II models are of the form ${cal F}(R, A^{mu u}A_{mu u})$ where ${cal F}$ is a function of Ricci scalar and square of anticurvature tensor. For both these classes of models, we numerically solve the modified Friedmann equations in the redshift range $1500 < z < 0$. We show that the late-time evolution of the Universe, i.e., evolution from matter-dominated epoch to accelerated expansion epoch, can not be explained by these two classes of models. Using the reduced action approach, we show why we can not bypass the no-go theorem for Ricci-inverse gravity models. Finally, we discuss the implications of our analysis for the early-Universe cosmology.
Lectures by the author at the 1986 Cargese summer school modestly corrected and uploaded for greater accessibility. Some of the authors views on the quantum mechanics of cosmology have changed from those presented here but may still be of historical interest. The material on the Born-Oppenheimer approximation for solving the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and the work on the classical geometry limit and the approximation of quantum field theory in curved spacetime are still of interest and of use.