In this paper we show how the solar system, the galactic, and the cosmological scales, are accommodated in a single framework, namely, in the derivative expansion framework. We construct a locally inertial static metric, based on the Einstein equations and on the derivative expansion method, which describes a Schwarzschild black hole immersed in dark matter and dark energy. The leading order metric in the expansion corresponds to the solar system, the first order metric to the galaxy, and the second order metric to cosmology. It is shown how this metric captures the main observations at each scale: in the solar system it trivially gives the Keplerian physics, in the galaxy it gives the flat part of the rotation curve and the Baryonic Tully-Fisher relation, and in the cosmological scale it gives the cosmological redshift, the accelerating expansion, and it coincides with the Robertson-Walker spacetime in the appropriate limit and approximation.
A modified gravitational theory is developed in which the gravitational coupling constants $G$ and $Q$ and the effective mass $m_ϕ$ of a repulsive vector field run with momentum scale $k$ or length scale $\ell =1/k$, according to a renormalization group flow. The theory can explain cosmological early universe data with a dark hidden photon and late time galaxy and cluster dynamics without dark matter. The theory agrees with solar system and binary pulsar observations.
We consider higher derivative gravity lagrangians in 3 and 4 dimensions, which admit simple c-theorems, including upto six derivative curvature invariants. Following a suggestion by Myers, these lagrangians are restricted such that the fluctuations around (anti) de Sitter spaces have second order linearized equations of motion. We study c-theorems both in the context of AdS/CFT and cosmology. In the context of cosmology, the monotonic function is the entropy defined on the apparent horizon through Wald's formula. Exact black hole solutions which are asymptotically (anti) de Sitter are presente…
The basics of the relativistic astrophysics including the celestial mechanics in weak field, black holes and cosmological models are illustrated and analyzed by means of Maple 6
We study cosmological perturbations in mimetic gravity in the presence of classified higher derivative terms which can make the mimetic perturbations stable. We show that the quadratic higher derivative terms which are independent of curvature and the cubic higher derivative terms which come from curvature corrections are sufficient to remove instabilities in mimetic perturbations. The advantage of working with the classified higher derivative terms is that we can control both the background and the perturbation equations allowing us to construct the higher derivative extension of mimetic dark…
I give a compact, pedagogical review of our present understanding of the universe as based on general relativity. This includes the uniform models, with special reference to the cosmological 'constant'; and the equations for spherically-symmetric systems, in a particularly convenient form that aids their application to astrophysics. New ideas in research are also outlined, notably involving extra dimensions.
We perform a combined perturbation and observational investigation of the scenario of non-minimal derivative coupling between a scalar field and curvature. First we extract the necessary condition that ensures the absence of instabilities, which is fulfilled more sufficiently for smaller coupling values. Then using Type Ia Supernovae (SNIa), Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) observations, we show that, contrary to its significant effects on inflation, the non-minimal derivative coupling term has a negligible effect on the universe acceleration, since it …
We examine astronomical observations that would be achievable over a future timeline corresponding to the documented history of human civilization so far, $\sim 10^4$ years. We examine implications for measurements of the redshift drift, evolution of the CMB, and cosmic parallax. A number of events that are rare on the scale of centuries will become easily observable on a timescale $\sim 10^4$ years. Implications for several measurements related to gravity are discussed.
We investigate cosmological scenarios with a non-minimal derivative coupling between the scalar field and the curvature, examining both the quintessence and the phantom cases in zero and constant potentials. In general, we find that the universe transits from one de Sitter solution to another, determined by the coupling parameter. Furthermore, according to the parameter choices and without the need for matter, we can obtain a Big Bang, an expanding universe with no beginning, a cosmological turnaround, an eternally contracting universe, a Big Crunch, a Big Rip avoidance and a cosmological boun…
Recently, Chamseddine and Mukhanov introduced a higher-derivative scalar-tensor theory which leads to a modified Friedmann equation allowing for bouncing solutions. As we note in the present work, this Friedmann equation turns out to reproduce exactly the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for a flat isotropic and homogeneous space-time. We generalize this result to obtain a class of scalar-tensor theories, belonging to the family of mimetic gravity, which all reproduce the loop quantum cosmology effective dynamics for flat, closed and open isotropic and homogeneous space-times.
The quantum contributions to the gravitational action are relatively easy to calculate in the higher derivative sector of the theory. However, the applications to the post-inflationary cosmology and astrophysics require the corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action and to the cosmological constant, and those we can not derive yet in a consistent and safe way. At the same time, if we assume that these quantum terms are covariant and that they have relevant magnitude, their functional form can be defined up to a single free parameter, which can be defined on the phenomenological basis. It turns…
Gravitational wave detectors are already operating at interesting sensitivity levels, and they have an upgrade path that should result in secure detections by 2014. We review the physics of gravitational waves, how they interact with detectors (bars and interferometers), and how these detectors operate. We study the most likely sources of gravitational waves and review the data analysis methods that are used to extract their signals from detector noise. Then we consider the consequences of gravitational wave detections and observations for physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.
The quantum cosmology of a higher-derivative derivative gravity theory arising from the heterotic string effective action is reviewed. A new type of Wheeler-DeWitt equation is obtained when the dilaton is coupled to the quadratic curvature terms. Techniques for solving the Wheeler-DeWitt equation with appropriate boundary conditions shall be described, and implications for semiclassical theories of inflationary cosmology will be outlined.
Recent years have seen dramatic progress in cosmology and particle astrophysics. So much so that anyone who dares to offer an overview would certainly risk him- or herself for being incomplete and biased at best, and even incorrect due to the author's limited expertise. It is with this understanding and excuse that I risk myself in offering this review. After a brief summary of Planck mission's first results, I highlight some selected theoretical and experimental advancement in dark energy, dark matter, and cosmic neutrinos research. It is hoped that with a glance through these exciting develo…
A relativistic modified gravity (MOG) theory leads to a self-consistent, stable gravity theory that can describe the solar system, galaxy and clusters of galaxies data and cosmology.
Higher derivative scalar field theories have received considerable attention for the potentially explanations of the initial state of the universe or the current cosmic acceleration which they might offer. They have also attracted many interests in the phenomenological studies of infrared modifications of gravity. These theories are mostly studied by the metric variational approach in which only the metric is the fundamental field to account for the gravitation. In this paper we study the higher derivative scalar fields with the metric-affine formalism where the connections are treated arbitra…
Gravitational-wave (GW) radiation from a coalescing compact binary is a standard siren as the luminosity distance of each event can be directly measured from the amplitude of the signal. One possibility to constrain cosmology using the GW siren is to perform statistical inference on a population of binary black hole (BBH) events. In essence, this statistical method can be viewed as follows. We can modify the shape of the distribution of observed BBH events by changing cosmological parameters until it eventually matches the distribution constructed from an astrophysical population model, thereb…
We investigate the cosmological implications of a new class of modified gravity, where the field equations generically include higher-order derivatives of the matter fields, arising from the introduction of non-dynamical auxiliary fields in the action. Imposing a flat, homogeneous and isotropic geometry we extract the Friedmann equations, obtaining an effective dark-energy sector containing higher derivatives of the matter energy density and pressure. For the cases of dust, radiation, and stiff matter we analyze the cosmological behavior, finding accelerating, de Sitter, and non-accelerating p…
We study a quantization via fractional derivative of a nonminimal derivative coupling cosmological theory, namely, the Fab Four John theory. Its Hamiltonian version presents the issue of fractional powers in the momenta. That problem is solved here by the application of the so-called conformable fractional derivative. This leads to a Wheeler-DeWitt equation of second order, showing that a Bohm-de Broglie interpretation can be constructed. That combination of fractional quantization and Bohmian interpretation provides us a new quantization method, in which the quantum potential is the criterion…
The microscopic quantum nature of elementary particles, chirality, leads to macroscopic phenomena like the chiral anomaly, chiral magnetic effect, and chiral plasma instability. We review recent progress of the studies of these chiral effects in high-energy astrophysics, such as pulsar kicks, magnetars, and core-collapse supernovae, and early Universe cosmology, such as the primordial magnetic field, baryogenesis, and chiral gravitational waves. We also provide a pedagogical introduction to the chiral effects and low-energy effective theories to describe them in and out of equilibrium -- the c…
One of the greatest problems of primordial inflation is that the inflationary space-time is past-incomplete. This is mainly because Einstein's GR suffers from a space-like Big Bang singularity. It has recently been shown that ghost-free, non-local higher-derivative ultra-violet modifications of Einstein's gravity may be able to resolve the cosmological Big Bang singularity via a non-singular bounce. Within the framework of such non-local cosmological models, we are going to study both sub- and super-Hubble perturbations around an inflationary trajectory which is preceded by the Big Bounce in t…
We review astrophysical, cosmological and terrestrial evidence for and against the constancy of fundamental parameters of particle physics, and discuss theoretical issues of unification and scalar-mediated forces, finding that the current rate of variation is bounded by limits on violations of the weak equivalence principle.
We give a brief review of the non-minimal derivative coupling (NMDC) scalar field theory in which there is non-minimal coupling between the scalar field derivative term and the Einstein tensor. We assume that the expansion is of power-law type or super-acceleration type for small redshift. The Lagrangian includes the NMDC term, a free kinetic term, a cosmological constant term and a barotropic matter term. For a value of the coupling constant that is compatible with inflation, we use the combined WMAP9 (WMAP9+eCMB+BAO+ $H_0$) dataset, the PLANCK+WP dataset, and the PLANCK $TT,TE,EE$+lowP+Lensi…
In this work we analyze kinematical conformal cosmology (KCC), an alternative cosmological model based on conformal Weyl gravity (CG), and test it against current type Ia supernova (SNIa) luminosity data and other astrophysical observations. Expanding upon previous work on the subject, we revise the analysis of SNIa data, confirming that KCC can explain the evidence for an accelerating expansion of the Universe without using dark energy or other exotic components. We obtain an independent evaluation of the Hubble constant, H_{0} = 67.53 km/s Mpc, very close to the current best estimates. The m…
Several recent studies have considered the implications for astrophysics and cosmology of some possible nonclassical properties of spacetime at the Planck scale. The new effects, such as a Planck-scale-modified energy-momentum (dispersion) relation, are often inferred from the analysis of some quantum versions of Minkowski spacetime, and therefore the relevant estimates depend heavily on the assumption that there could not be significant interplay between Planck-scale and curvature effects. We here scrutinize this assumption, using as guidance a quantum version of de Sitter spacetime with know…
This paper is crucial part of an experiment aimed to investigate whether Social Networks can be of help for Astrophysics. In the present case, in helping to eliminate the deep-routed wrong misconception of Flat Rotation Curves of Spiral Galaxies, more rapidly and efficiently than the traditional method of publishing peer-reviewed papers and organizing a number of international conferences. To reach this goal we created the Facebook Group "Rotation Curve are not Flat" that we filled with all the evidence necessary for an immediate and definite confrontation with the above fallacious legendary b…
The degree by which a function can be differentiated need not be restricted to integer values. Usually most of the field equations of physics are taken to be second order, curiosity asks what happens if this is only approximately the case and the field equations are nearly second order. For Robertson-Walker cosmology there is a simple fractional modification of the Friedman and conservation equations. In general fractional gravitational equations similar to Einstein's are hard to define as this requires fractional derivative geometry. What fractional derivative geometry might entail is briefly…
We study a theory which generalizes the nonminimal coupling of matter to gravity by including derivative couplings. This leads to several interesting new dynamical phenomena in cosmology. In particular, the range of parameters in which inflationary attractors exist is greatly expanded. We also numerically integrate the field equations and draw the phase space of the model in second order approximation. The model introduced here may display different inflationary epochs, generating a non-scale-invariant fluctuation spectrum without the need of two or more fields. Finally, we comment on the bubb…
We explore the effects of a positive cosmological constant on astrophysical and cosmological configurations described by a polytropic equation of state. We derive the conditions for equilibrium and stability of such configurations and consider some astrophysical examples where our analysis may be relevant. We show that in the presence of the cosmological constant the isothermal sphere is not a viable astrophysical model since the density in this model does not go asymptotically to zero. The cosmological constant implies that, for polytropic index smaller than five, the central density has to e…
We study a tachyon model with non-minimal derivative coupling to gravity in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker flat cosmology. We propose the special re-definition of the tachyon field which allows us to represent tachyon field equation formally coinciding with its usual form but with re-defined Hubble parameter. Two first integrals for the model equations are obtained that can essentially simplify both further analysis and analytical solving for the model. These integrals become the trivial identities in the case of minimal coupling. The effective energy density and pressure of the tachyon field …
Cosmological consequences of a string-motivated dark energy scenario featuring a scalar field coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant are investigated. We study the evolution of the universe in such a model, identifying its key properties. The evolution of the homogeneous background and cosmological perturbations, both at large and small scales, are calculated. The impact of the coupling on galaxy distributions and the cosmic microwave background is examined. We find the coupling provides a mechanism to viably onset the late acceleration, to alleviate the coincidence problem, and furthermore to …
A framework is introduced which explains the existence and similarities of most exact solutions of the Einstein equations with a wide range of sources for the class of hypersurface-homogeneous spacetimes which admit a Hamiltonian formulation. This class includes the spatially homogeneous cosmological models and the astrophysically interesting static spherically symmetric models as well as the stationary cylindrically symmetric models. The framework involves methods for finding and exploiting hidden symmetries and invariant submanifolds of the Hamiltonian formulation of the field equations. It …
We present the astrophysical science case for a space-based, decihertz gravitational-wave (GW) detector. We particularly highlight an ability to infer a source's sky location, both when combined with a network of ground-based detectors to form a long triangulation baseline, and by itself for the early warning of merger events. Such an accurate location measurement is the key for using GW signals as standard sirens for constraining the Hubble constant. This kind of detector also opens up the possibility to test type Ia supernovae progenitor hypotheses by constraining the merger rates of white d…
NMDC-Palatini cosmology in slow-roll regime is of our interests. We present flat FLRW cosmological NMDC-Palatini field equations and acceleration condition. Late time trajectory is approximated. Chaotic inflation potential is considered here as it is viable in a range of positive coupling constant as constrained by CMB results. Phase portraits show that the NMDC-Palatini gives new saddle-point solutions. In $V \propto ϕ^2$ potential, the NMDC-Palatini effect enlarges the acceleration-allowed region from that of GR case.
This document introduces the exciting and fundamentally new science and astronomy that the European New Gravitational Wave Observatory (NGO) mission (derived from the previous LISA proposal) will deliver. The mission (which we will refer to by its informal name "eLISA") will survey for the first time the low-frequency gravitational wave band (about 0.1 mHz to 1 Hz), with sufficient sensitivity to detect interesting individual astrophysical sources out to z = 15. The eLISA mission will discover and study a variety of cosmic events and systems with high sensitivity: coalescences of massive black…
In Chapter 1 I present the current picture of the universe and briefly review the cosmological constant problem and some of the theories proposed to solve it. The following Chapters essentially contain the published papers with some modifications and additions: in Chapter 2 I study the radiation-dominated epoch in $R^2$ gravity, gravitational particle production and its implications for the early and contemporary universe; in Chapter 3 I investigate the formation of curvature singularities in contracting astronomical systems; in Chapter 4, I discuss some mechanisms to prevent such singularitie…
We show how higher derivatives of the expansion factor can be developed into a null diagnostic for concordance cosmology (LCDM). It is well known that the Statefinder -- the third derivative of the expansion factor written in dimensionless form, a^{(3)}/aH^3, equals unity for LCDM. We generalize this result to higher derivatives of the expansion factor and demonstrate that the hierarchy, a^{(n)}/aH^n, can be converted to a form that stays pegged at unity in concordance cosmology. This remarkable property of the Statefinder hierarchy enables it to be used as an extended null diagnostic for the …
In this letter, cosmology of a simple NMDC gravity with $ξR ϕ_{,μ}ϕ^{,μ}$ term and a free kinetic term is considered in flat geometry and in presence of dust matter. A logarithm field transformation $ϕ' = μ\ln ϕ$ is proposed phenomenologically. Assuming slow-roll approximation, equation of motion, scalar field solution and potential are derived as function of kinematic variables. The field solution and potential are found straightforwardly for power-law, de-Sitter and super-acceleration expansions. Slow-roll parameters and slow-roll condition are found to depend on more than one variable. At l…
The second-generation interferometric gravitational wave detectors currently under construction are expected to make their first detections within this decade. This will firmly establish gravitational wave physics as an empirical science and will open up a new era in astrophysics, cosmology, and fundamental physics. Already with the first detections, we will be able to, among other things, establish the nature of short-hard gamma ray bursts, definitively confirm the existence of black holes, measure the Hubble constant in a completely independent way, and for the first time gain access to the …
We continue our presentation of an alternative cosmology based on conformal gravity, following our kinematical approach introduced in a recent paper. In line with the assumptions of our model, which proposes a closed-form expression for the cosmic scale factor R(t), we first revise the Hubble and deceleration parameters and also introduce modified cosmological distances, analyzing in particular the case of the luminosity distance. Our kinematical conformal cosmology is then able to explain the anomalous acceleration of the Pioneer spacecraft, as due to a local region of gravitational blueshift…
The braneworld description of our universe entails a large extra dimension and a fundamental scale of gravity that might be lower by several orders of magnitude compared to the Planck scale. An interesting consequence of the braneworld scenario is in the nature of spherically symmetric vacuum solutions to the brane gravitational field equations which could represent black holes with properties quite distinct compared to ordinary black holes in 4-dimensions. We discuss certain key features of some braneworld black hole geometries. Such black holes are likely to have diverse cosmological and ast…
Two of the most rapidly growing observables in cosmology and astrophysics are gravitational waves (GW) and the neutral hydrogen (HI) distribution. In this work, we investigate the cross-correlation between resolved gravitational wave detections and HI signal from intensity mapping (IM) experiments. By using a tomographic approach with angular power spectra, including all projection effects, we explore possible applications of the combination of the Einstein Telescope and the SKAO intensity mapping surveys. We focus on three main topics: \textit{(i)} statistical inference of the observed redshi…
Counting galaxy number density with wide range sky surveys has been well adopted in researches focusing on revealing evolution pattern of different types of galaxies. As understood intuitively the astrophysics environment physics is intimated affected by cosmology priors with theoretical estimation or vise versa, or simply stating that the astrophysics effect couples the corresponding cosmology observations or the way backwards. In this article we try to quantify the influence on galaxy number density prediction at faint luminosity limit from the uncertainties in cosmology, and how much the un…
A new class of modified gravity theories with a healthy higher order derivative terms of a function of the matter Lagrangian $f(L_m)$ is considered. Generally the energy momentum tensor is not conserved, leading to the fifth force similar to $f(R,T)$ theories. We will however show that in the FRW background there exists two possibilities corresponding to conservative and non-conservative cases. Cosmological implications of both cases with different functions of the matter Lagrangian $f$ will be investigated in details and we will show that current observational data can be satisfied in this mo…
Recently, the research community has been exploring fractional calculus to address problems related to cosmology; in this approach, the gravitational action integral is altered, leading to a modified Friedmann equation, then the resulting theory is compared against observational data. In this context, dynamical systems can be used along with an analysis the phase spaces for different values of the fractional order of the derivative and their different matter contents. The equilibrium points are classified, providing a range for the order of the fractional derivative in order to investigate whe…
In this paper, we study some relevant cosmological features of a Dark Energy (DE) model with Granda-Oliveiros cut-off, which is just a specific case of Nojiri-Odintsov holographic DE unifying phantom inflation with late-time acceleration, in the framework of Chameleon Brans-Dicke (BD) Cosmology. Choosing a particular ansatz for some of the quantities involved, we derive the expressions of some important cosmological quantities, like the Equation of State (EoS) parameter of DE $w_D$, the effective EoS parameter $w_{eff}$, the pressure of DE $p_D$ and the deceleration parameter $q$. Moreover, we…
