No Arabic abstract
We show that it is possible to realize a cosmological bouncing solution in an anisotropic but homogeneous Bianchi-I background in a class of non-local, infinite derivative theories of gravity. We show that the anisotropic shear grows slower than in general relativity during the contraction phase, peaks to a finite value at the bounce point, and then decreases as the universe asymptotes towards isotropy and homogeneity, and ultimately to de Sitter. Along with a cosmological constant, the matter sector required to drive such a bounce is found to consist of three components - radiation, stiff matter and $k$-matter (whose energy density decays like the inverse square of the average scale factor). Generically, $k$-matter exerts anisotropic pressures. We will test the bouncing solution in local and non-local gravity and show that in the latter case it is possible to simultaneously satisfy positivity of energy density and, at least in the late time de Sitter phase, avoid the introduction of propagating ghost/tachyonic modes.
Symmetric Teleparallel Gravity is an exceptional theory of gravity that is consistent with the vanishing affine connection. This theory is an alternative and a simpler geometrical formulation of general relativity, where the non-metricity $Q$ drives the gravitational interaction. Our interest lies in exploring the cosmological bouncing scenarios in a flat Friedmann-Lima^itre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetime within this framework. We explore bouncing scenarios with two different Lagrangian forms of $f(Q)$ such as a linearly and non-linearly dependence on $Q$. We have successfully examined all the energy conditions and stability analysis for both models to present a matter bounce.
We present a new bouncing cosmological solution of the non-local theory known as infinite derivative gravity, which goes beyond the recursive ansatz, ${Box R = r_1 R +r_2}$. The non-local field equations are evaluated using the spectral decomposition with respect to the eigenfunctions of the wave operator. The energy-momentum tensor computed for this geometry turns out to be much more sensitive to the choice of the non-local form-factor, since it depends on the value of the function on a continuous infinite interval. We show that this stronger dependence on the form-factor allows us to source the geometry by the perfect fluid with the non-negative energy density satisfying the strong energy condition. We show that this bouncing behaviour is not possible in the local theories of gravity such as in general relativity or $R+R^2$ gravity sourced by a fluid which meets the non-negative energy and strong energy conditions.
It was found recently that the anisotropies in the homogeneous Bianchi I cosmology considered within the context of a specific Horndeski theory are damped near the initial singularity instead of being amplified. In this work we extend the analysis of this phenomenon to cover the whole of the Horndeski family. We find that the phenomenon is absent in the K-essence and/or Kinetic Gravity Braiding theories, where the anisotropies grow as one approaches the singularity. The anisotropies are damped at early times only in more general Horndeski models whose Lagrangian includes terms quadratic and cubic in second derivatives of the scalar field. Such theories are often considered as being inconsistent with the observations because they predict a non-constant speed of gravitational waves. However, the predicted value of the speed at present can be close to the speed of light with any required precision, hence the theories actually agree with the present time observations. We consider two different examples of such theories, both characterized by a late self-acceleration and an early inflation driven by the non-minimal coupling. Their anisotropies show a maximum at intermediate times and approach zero at early and late times. The early inflationary stage exhibits an instability with respect to inhomogeneous perturbations, suggesting that the initial state of the universe should be inhomogeneous. However, more general Horndeski models may probably be stable.
We derive a new interior solution for stellar compact objects in $fmathcal{(R)}$ gravity assuming a differential relation to constrain the Ricci curvature scalar. To this aim, we consider specific forms for the radial component of the metric and the first derivative of $fmathcal{(R)}$. After, the time component of the metric potential and the form of $f(mathcal R)$ function are derived. From these results, it is possible to obtain the radial and tangential components of pressure and the density. The resulting interior solution represents a physically motivated anisotropic neutron star model. It is possible to match it with a boundary exterior solution. From this matching, the components of metric potentials can be rewritten in terms of a compactness parameter $C$ which has to be $C=2GM/Rc^2 <<0.5$ for physical consistency. Other physical conditions for real stellar objects are taken into account according to the solution. We show that the model accurately bypasses conditions like the finiteness of radial and tangential pressures, and energy density at the center of the star, the positivity of these components through the stellar structure, and the negativity of the gradients. These conditions are satisfied if the energy-conditions hold. Moreover, we study the stability of the model by showing that Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff equation is at hydrostatic equilibrium. The solution is matched with observational data of millisecond pulsars with a withe dwarf companion and pulsars presenting thermonuclear bursts.
In this paper, we study a class of higher derivative, non-local gravity which admits homogeneous and isotropic non-singular, bouncing universes in the absence of matter. At the linearized level, the theory propagates only a scalar degree of freedom, and no vector or tensor modes. The scalar can be made free from perturbative ghost instabilities, and has oscillatory and bounded evolution across the bounce.