No Arabic abstract
Recently D. Vollick [Phys. Rev. D68, 063510 (2003)] has shown that the inclusion of the 1/R curvature terms in the gravitational action and the use of the Palatini formalism offer an alternative explanation for cosmological acceleration. In this work we show not only that this model of Vollick does not have a good Newtonian limit, but also that any f(R) theory with a pole of order n in R=0 and its second derivative respect to R evaluated at Ro is not zero, where Ro is the scalar curvature of background, does not have a good Newtonian limit.
We focus on a series of $f(R)$ gravity theories in Palatini formalism to investigate the probabilities of producing the late-time acceleration for the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe. We apply statefinder diagnostic to these cosmological models for chosen series of parameters to see if they distinguish from one another. The diagnostic involves the statefinder pair ${r,s}$, where $r$ is derived from the scale factor $a$ and its higher derivatives with respect to the cosmic time $t$, and $s$ is expressed by $r$ and the deceleration parameter $q$. In conclusion, we find that although two types of $f(R)$ theories: (i) $f(R) = R + alpha R^m - beta R^{-n}$ and (ii) $f(R) = R + alpha ln R - beta$ can lead to late-time acceleration, their evolutionary trajectories in the $r-s$ and $r-q$ planes reveal different evolutionary properties, which certainly justify the merits of statefinder diagnostic. Additionally, we utilize the observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) to constrain these models of $f(R)$ gravity. As a result, except for $m=n=1/2$ of (i) case, $alpha=0$ of (i) case and (ii) case allow $Lambda$CDM model to exist in 1$sigma$ confidence region. After adopting statefinder diagnostic to the best-fit models, we find that all the best-fit models are capable of going through deceleration/acceleration transition stage with late-time acceleration epoch, and all these models turn to de-Sitter point (${r,s}={1,0}$) in the future. Also, the evolutionary differences between these models are distinct, especially in $r-s$ plane, which makes the statefinder diagnostic more reliable in discriminating cosmological models.
We study new FRW type cosmological models of modified gravity treated on the background of Palatini approach. These models are generalization of Einstein gravity by the presence of a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the curvature. The models employ Starobinskys term in the Lagrangian and dust matter. Therefore, as a by-product, an exhausted cosmological analysis of general relativity amended by quadratic term is presented. We investigate dynamics of our models, confront them with the currently available astrophysical data as well as against LCDM model. We have used the dynamical system methods in order to investigate dynamics of the models. It reveals the presence of a final sudden singularity. Fitting free parameters we have demonstrated by statistical analysis that this class of models is in a very good agreement with the data (including CMB measurements) as well as with the standard LCDM model predictions. One has to use statefinder diagnostic in order to discriminate among them. Therefore Bayesian methods of model selection have been employed in order to indicate preferred model. Only in the light of CMB data the concordance model remains invincible.
Slow-roll inflation is analyzed in the context of modified gravity within the Palatini formalism. As shown in the literature, inflation in this framework requires the presence of non-traceless matter, otherwise it does not occur just as a consequence of the non-linear gravitational terms of the action. Nevertheless, by including a single scalar field that plays the role of the inflaton, slow-roll inflation can be performed in these theories, where the equations lead to an effective potential that modifies the dynamics. We obtain the general slow-roll parameters and analyze a simple model to illustrate the differences introduced by the gravitational terms under the Palatini approach, and the modifications on the spectral index and the tensor to scalar ratio predicted by the model.
We consider FRW cosmology in $f(R)= R+ gamma R^2+delta R^3$ modified framework. The Palatini approach reduces its dynamics to the simple generalization of Friedmann equation. Thus we study the dynamics in two-dimensional phase space with some details. After reformulation of the model in the Einstein frame, it reduces to the FRW cosmological model with a homogeneous scalar field and vanishing kinetic energy term. This potential determines the running cosmological constant term as a function of the Ricci scalar. As a result we obtain the emergent dark energy parametrization from the covariant theory. We study also singularities of the model and demonstrate that in the Einstein frame some undesirable singularities disappear.
A generic feature of viable exponential $F(R)$-gravity is investigated. An additional modification to stabilize the effective dark energy oscillations during matter era is proposed and applied to two viable models. An analysis on the future evolution of the universe is performed. Furthermore, a unified model for early and late-time acceleration is proposed and studied.