No Arabic abstract
In this paper, we first provide a brief review of the effective dynamics of two recently well-studied models of modified loop quantum cosmologies (mLQCs), which arise from different regularizations of the Hamiltonian constraint and show the robustness of a generic resolution of the big bang singularity, replaced by a quantum bounce due to non-perturbative Planck scale effects. As in loop quantum cosmology (LQC), in these modified models the slow-roll inflation happens generically. We consider the cosmological perturbations following the dressed and hybrid approaches and clarify some subtle issues regarding the ambiguity of the extension of the effective potential of the scalar perturbations across the quantum bounce, and the choice of initial conditions. Both of the modified regularizations yield primordial power spectra that are consistent with current observations for the Starobinsky potential within the framework of either the dressed or the hybrid approach. But differences in primordial power spectra are identified among the mLQCs and LQC. In addition, for mLQC-I, striking differences arise between the dressed and hybrid approaches in the infrared and oscillatory regimes. While the differences between the two modified models can be attributed to differences in the Planck scale physics, the permissible choices of the initial conditions and the differences between the two perturbation approaches have been reported for the first time. All these differences, due to either the different regularizations or the different perturbation approaches in principle can be observed in terms of non-Gaussianities.
When Brans-Dicke Theory is formulated in terms of the Jordan scalar field phi, dark energy is related to the mass of this field. We show that if phi is taken to be a complex scalar field then an exact solution of the vacuum equations shows that Friedmann equation possesses a term, proportional to the inverse sixth power of the scale factor, as well as a constant term. Possible interpretations and phenomenological implications of this result are discussed.
The origin of accelerating expansion of the Universe is one the biggest conundrum of fundamental physics. In this paper we review vacuum energy issues as the origin of accelerating expansion - generally called dark energy - and give an overview of alternatives, which a large number of them can be classified as interacting scalar field models. We review properties of these models both as classical field and as quantum condensates in the framework of non-equilibrium quantum field theory. Finally, we review phenomenology of models with the goal of discriminating between them.
We discuss the most general field equations for cosmological spacetimes for theories of gravity based on non-linear extensions of the non-metricity scalar and the torsion scalar. Our approach is based on a systematic symmetry-reduction of the metric-affine geometry which underlies these theories. While for the simplest conceivable case the connection disappears from the field equations and one obtains the Friedmann equations of General Relativity, we show that in $f(mathbb{Q})$ cosmology the connection generically modifies the metric field equations and that some of the connection components become dynamical. We show that $f(mathbb{Q})$ cosmology contains the exact General Relativity solutions and also exact solutions which go beyond. In $f(mathbb{T})$~cosmology, however, the connection is completely fixed and not dynamical.
We study the structure of compact objects that contain non-self annihilating, self-interacting dark matter admixed with ordinary matter made of neutron star and white dwarf materials. We extend the previous work Phys. Rev. D 92 123002 (2015) on these dark compact objects by analyzing the effect of weak and strongly interacting dark matter with particle masses in the range of 1-500 GeV, so as to set some constraints in the strength of the interaction and the mass of the dark matter particle. We find that the total mass of the compact objects increases with decreasing dark matter particle mass. In the strong interacting case and for dark matter particle masses in the range 1-10 GeV, the total mass of the compact objects largely exceeds the $2M_odot$ constraint for neutron star masses and the nominal $1M_odot$for white dwarfs, while for larger dark matter particle masses or in the weakly interacting case the compact objects show masses in agreement or smaller than these constraints, thus hinting at the exclusion of strongly self-interacting dark matter of masses 1-10 GeV in the interior of these compact objects. Moreover, we observe that the smaller the dark matter particle mass, the larger the quantity of dark matter captured is, putting constraints on the dark matter mass trapped in the compact objects so as to fullfill $simeq 2M_odot$ observations. Finally, the inhomogeneity of distribution of dark matter in the Galaxy implies a mass dependence of compact objects from the environment which can be used to put constraints on the characteristics of the Galaxy halo DM profile and on particle mass. In view of the these results, we discuss the formation of the dark compact objects in an homogeneous and non-homogeneous dark matter environment.
We investigate the qualitative evolution of (D+1)-dimensional cosmological models in f(R) gravity for the general case of the function f(R). The analysis is specified for various examples, including the (D+1)-dimensional generalization of the Starobinsky model, models with polynomial and exponential functions. The cosmological dynamics are compared in the Einstein and Jordan representations of the corresponding scalar-tensor theory. The features of the cosmological evolution are discussed for Einstein frame potentials taking negative values in certain regions of the field space.