Related papers: A Brief History of Curvature
We propose a large class of nonsingular cosmologies of arbitrary spatial curvature whose cosmic history is determined by a primeval dynamical $\Lambda (t)$-term. For all values of the curvature, the models evolve between two extreme de…
If the spatial curvature of the universe is positive, then the curvature term will always dominate at early enough times in a slow-rolling inflationary epoch. This enhances inflationary effects and hence puts limits on the possible number…
We study the evolution of cosmological fluctuations during and after inflation driven by a scalar field coupled to a perfect fluid through afriction term. During the slow-roll regime for the scalar field, the perfect fluid is also frozen…
We revisit spatially flat FLRW cosmology in light of recent advances in standard model relativistic fluid dynamics. Modern fluid dynamics requires the presence of curvature-matter terms in the energy-momentum tensor for consistency. These…
Purpose: This essay is a retelling of general relativity in a language in which space-time geometry is expressed as a fluid. This trivial and useful reformulation gives 1) a non-perturbative covariant description of cosmological…
In conformally flat background geometries the long wavelength gravitons can be described in the fluid approximation and they induce scalar fluctuations both during inflation and in the subsequent radiation-dominated epoch. While this effect…
In this article we investigate dependency of the adiabatic and entropy spectral indices of the cosmological perturbations on the geometry and topology of the background universe. Our discussion includes the post-inflationary universe i.e.…
Eternal inflation arising from a potential landscape predicts that our universe is one realization of many possible cosmological histories. One way to access different cosmological histories is via the nucleation of bubble universes from a…
We present a set of equations describing the evolution of the scalar-type cosmological perturbation in a gravity with general quadratic order curvature coupling terms. Equations are presented in a gauge ready form, thus are ready to…
The convergence of scalar-tensor gravity to general relativity, or the departure from it, are described in a new analogy with heat dissipation in a viscous fluid. This new thermal picture is applied to cosmology, shedding light on whether…
The classical gravitational theory of a scalar field with a gradient coupling to the Ricci tensor is examined. This is a scalar-vector-tensor gravitational theory, but in the case that the coupling is weak and the scalar evolves like a…
We review the role of fluids in cosmology by first introducing them in General Relativity and then by applying them to a FRW Universe's model. We describe how relativistic and non-relativistic components evolve in the background dynamics.…
We study the cosmological evolution of a scalar field that couples to the trace $T=T^{a}_a$ of energy momentum tensor of all the fields (including itself). In the case of a shallow exponential potential, the presence of coupling to the…
Previously defined covariant and gauge-invariant perturbation variables, representing, e.g., the fractional spatial energy density gradient on hypersurfaces of constant expansion, are used to simplify the linear perturbation analysis of a…
Cosmological phase transitions are thought to have taken place at the early Universe imprinting their properties on the observable Universe. There is strong evidence that, through the dynamics of a scalar field that lead a second order…
This article presents the derivation of the stress-energy tensor of a free scalar field with a general non-linear dispersion relation in curved spacetime. This dispersion relation is used as a phenomelogical description of the short…
A correspondence between fluctuations of non-minimally coupled scalar fields and that of an effective fluid with heat flux and anisotropic stresses, is shown. Though the correspondence between respective stress tensors of scalar fields and…
An accelerated universe should naturally have a vacuum energy density determined by its dynamical curvature. The cosmological constant is most likely a temporary description of a dynamical variable that has been drastically evolving from…
I show that the de Sitter Equilibrium cosmology generically predicts observable levels of curvature in the Universe today. The predicted value of the curvature depends only on the ratio of the density of non-relativistic matter to energy…
We review the dynamics of spectator scalar fields non-minimally coupled to gravity in the post-inflationary Universe, with particular emphasis on scenarios where the end of inflation is followed by a period of kination. In this context, the…