Besides expanding anisotropically, the universe can also be anisotropic at the level of its (spatial) curvature. In particular, models with anisotropic curvature and isotropic expansion leads both to a $Λ$CDM-like phenomenology and to an isotropic and homogeneous CMB at the background level. Thus, they offer an interesting and viable example where the cosmological principle does not follow from the isotropy of observational data. In this paper we extract the linear dynamics of tensor perturbations in two classes of cosmologies with anisotropic spatial curvature. Two difficulties arise in comparison to the same computation in isotropic cosmologies. First, the two tensor polarizations do not behave as a spin-2 field, but rather as the spin-0 and spin-1 irreducible components of a symmetric, traceless and transverse tensor field, each with its own dynamics. Second, because metric perturbations are algebraically coupled, one cannot ignore scalar and vector modes and focus just on tensors --- even if one is only interested in the latter --- under the penalty of obtaining the wrong equations of motion. We illustrate our results by finding analytical solutions and evaluating the power-spectra of tensor polarizations in a radiation dominated universe. We conclude with some comments on how these models could be constrained with future experiments on CMB polarization.
This study uses very simple symmetry and consistency considerations to put constraints on possible Friedmann equations for modified gravity models in curved spaces. As an example, it is applied to loop quantum cosmology.
Background boucing cosmologies in the framework of General Relativity, driven by a single scalar field filling the Universe, and with a quasi-matter domination period, i.e., depicting the so-called Matter Bounce Scenario, are reconstructed for geometries with positive spatial curvature. These cosmologies lead to a nearly flat power spectrum of the curvature fluctuations in co-moving coordinates for modes that leave the Hubble radius during the quasi-matter domination period, and whose spectral index and its running, which are related with the effective Equation of State parameter given by the …
We show that in theories of gravity that add quadratic curvature invariants to the Einstein-Hilbert action there exist expanding vacuum cosmologies with positive cosmological constant which do not approach the de Sitter universe. Exact solutions are found which inflate anisotropically. This behaviour is driven by the Ricci curvature invariant and has no counterpart in the general relativistic limit. These examples show that the cosmic no-hair theorem does not hold in these higher-order extensions of general relativity and raises new questions about the ubiquity of inflation in the very early u…
The stability of the de Sitter era of cosmic expansion in spatially curved homogeneous isotropic universes is studied. The source of the gravitational field is an imperfect fluid such that the parameters that characterize it may change with time. In this way we extend our previous analysis for spatially-flat spaces as well as the work of Barrow.
In this paper we find the most general self-similar, homogeneous and isotropic, Ricci flat cosmologies in 5D. These cosmologies show a number of interesting features: (i) the field equations allow a complete integration in terms of one arbitrary function of the similarity variable, and a free parameter; (ii) the three-dimensional spatial surfaces are flat; (iii) the extra dimension is spacelike; (iv) the general solution is Riemann-flat in 5D but curved in 4D, which means that an observer confined to 4D spacetime can relate this curvature to the presence of matter, as determined by the Einstei…
We derive exact Friedmann--Robertson--Walker cosmological solutions in general scalar--tensor gravity theories, including Brans--Dicke gravity, for stiff matter or radiation. These correspond to the long or short wavelength modes respectively of massless scalar fields. If present, the long wavelength modes of such fields would be expected to dominate the energy density of the universe at early times and thus these models provide an insight into the classical behaviour of these scalar--tensor cosmologies near an initial singularity, or bounce. The particularly simple exact solutions also provid…
Nonsingular cosmologies are investigated in the framework of f(R) gravity within the first order formalism. General conditions for bounces in isotropic and homogeneous cosmology are presented. It is shown that only a quadratic curvature correction is needed to predict a bounce in a flat or to describe cyclic evolution in a curved dust-filled universe. Formalism for perturbations in these models is set up. In the simplest cases, the perturbations diverge at the turnover. Conditions to obtain smooth evolution are derived.
In the context of theories of Kaluza-Klein type, with a large extra dimension, we study self-similar cosmological models in 5D that are homogeneous, anisotropic and spatially flat. The "ladder" to go between the physics in 5D and 4D is provided by Campbell-Maagard's embedding theorems. We show that the 5-dimensional field equations $R_{AB} = 0$ determine the form of the similarity variable. There are three different possibilities: homothetic, conformal and "wave-like" solutions in 5D. We derive the most general homothetic and conformal solutions to the 5D field equations. They require the extr…
We use Hamiltonian methods to study curved domain walls and cosmologies. This leads naturally to first order equations for all domain walls and cosmologies foliated by slices of maximal symmetry. For Minkowski and AdS-sliced domain walls (flat and closed FLRW cosmologies) we recover a recent result concerning their (pseudo)supersymmetry. We show how domain-wall stability is consistent with the instability of adS vacua that violate the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound. We also explore the relationship to Hamilton-Jacobi theory and compute the wave-function of a 3-dimensional closed universe evolvin…
Assuming only a homogeneous and isotropic universe and using both the 'Gold' Supernova Type Ia sample of Riess et al. and the results from the Supernova Legacy Survey, we calculate the Bayesian evidence of a range of different parameterizations of the deceleration parameter. We consider both spatially flat and curved models. Our results show that although there is strong evidence in the data for an accelerating universe, there is little evidence that the deceleration parameter varies with redshift.
We study curved isotropic cosmologies filled with two interacting fluids near their time singularities. We find that a number of these universes asymptote to flat limits in the sense that their asymptotic properties become indistinguishable from those of flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker models on approach to the singularity along any asymptotic direction. In particular, there are no essential singularities in these models. We discuss connections of this result with possible extensions of the cosmic no hair theorem to the case of two interacting fluids, and also provide links to a quantum cosmol…
It is shown that any spatially flat and isotropic universe undergoing accelerated expansion driven by a self-interacting scalar field can be directly related to a contracting, decelerating cosmology. The duality is made manifest by expressing the scale factor and Hubble parameter as functions of the scalar field and simultaneously interchanging these two quantities. The decelerating universe can be twinned with a cosmology sourced by a phantom scalar field by inverting the scale factor and leaving the Hubble parameter invariant. The accelerating model can be related to the same phantom univers…
We consider anisotropic cosmologies in a particular shift-symmetric Horndeski theory containing the $G^{μν}\partial_μϕ\partial_νϕ$ coupling, where $G^{μν}$ is the Einstein tensor. This theory admits stable in the future self-accelerating cosmologies whose tensor perturbations propagate with the velocity very close to the speed of light such that the theory agrees with the gravity wave observations. Surprisingly, we find that the anisotropies within the Bianchi I homogeneous spacetime model are screened at early time by the scalar charge, whereas at late times they are damped in the usual way. …
We describe energy--momentum conservation in relativistic perturbation theory in general FRW backgrounds with causal source terms, such as the presence of cosmic defect networks. We provide a prescription for a linear energy--momentum pseudo-tensor in a curved FRW universe, decomposing it using eigenfunctions of the Helmholtz equation. We also construct conserved vector densities for the conformal geometry of these spacetimes and relate these to our pseudo-tensor, demonstrating the equivalence of these two approaches. We also relate these techniques to the role played by residual gauge freedom…
We perform a global analysis of curved Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies in the presence of a viscous fluid. The fluid's bulk viscosity is governed by a first order theory recently proposed in [M. M. Disconzi, T. W. Kephart, and R. J. Scherrer, Phys. Rev. D 91, 043532 (2015)], and the analysis is carried out in a compactified parameter space with dimensionless coordinates. We provide stability properties, cosmological interpretation and thermodynamic features of the critical points.
The question whether the integrable one-field cosmologies classified in a previous paper by Fre, Sagnotti and Sorin can be embedded as consistent one-field truncations into Extended Gauged Supergravity or in N=1 supergravity gauged by a superpotential without the use of D-terms is addressed in this paper. The answer is that such an embedding is very difficult and rare but not impossible. Indeed we were able to find two examples of integrable models embedded in Supergravity in this way. Both examples are fitted into N=1 Supergravity by means of a very specific and interesting choice of the supe…
We study limits of vacuum, isotropic universes in the full, effective, four-dimensional theory with higher derivatives. We show that all flat vacua as well as general curved ones are globally attracted by the standard, square root scaling solution at early times. Open vacua asymptote to horizon-free, Milne states in both directions while closed universes exhibit more complex logarithmic singularities, starting from initial data sets of a possibly smaller dimension. We also discuss the relation of our results to the asymptotic stability of the passage through the singularity in ekpyrotic and cy…
In this paper we address two important issues which could affect reaching the exponential and Kasner asymptotes in Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet cosmologies -- spatial curvature and anisotropy in both three- and extra-dimensional subspaces. In the first part of the paper we consider cosmological evolution of spaces being the product of two isotropic and spatially curved subspaces. It is demonstrated that the dynamics in $D=2$ (the number of extra dimensions) and $D \geqslant 3$ is different. It was already known that for the $Λ$-term case there is a regime with "stabilization" of extra dimensions, whe…
This PhD thesis presents a study of the effect and generation of non-adiabatic perturbations in Cosmology. We study adiabatic (curvature) and entropy (isocurvature) perturbations produced during a period of cosmological inflation that is driven by multiple scalar fields with an arbitrary interaction potential. A local rotation in field space is performed to separate out the adiabatic and entropy modes. The resulting field equations show explicitly how on large scales entropy perturbations can source adiabatic perturbations if the background solution follows a curved trajectory in field space, …
