Related papers: How Much NEC Breaking Can the Universe Endure?
The energy conditions of classical Einstein gravity fail once quantum effects are introduced. These quantum violations of the energy conditions are not subtle high-energy Planck scale effects. Rather the quantum violations of the energy…
Recently, Larry Ford and Tom Roman have discovered that in a flat cylindrical space, although the stress-energy tensor itself fails to satisfy the averaged null energy condition (ANEC) along the (non-achronal) null geodesics, when the…
We present a complete analysis of the observational constraints and cosmological implications of our Bound Dark Energy (BDE) model aimed to explain the late-time cosmic acceleration of the universe. BDE is derived from particle physics and…
We present evidence that the simplest particle-physics scalar-field models of dynamical dark energy can be separated into distinct behaviors based on the acceleration or deceleration of the field as it evolves down its potential towards a…
If dark energy is dynamical due to the evolution of a scalar field, then in general it is expected that the scalar is coupled to matter. While couplings to the standard model particles are highly constrained by local experiments, bounds on…
Using the low limit of cosmic ages from globular cluster and the white dwarfs: $t_0 > 12$Gyr, together with recent new high redshift supernova observations from the HST/GOODS program and previous supernova data, we give a considerable…
We propose a novel branch of the Galilean Genesis scenario as an alternative to inflation, in which the universe starts expanding from Minkowski in the asymptotic past with a gross violation of the null energy condition (NEC). This variant,…
Current cosmological data seem to show that dark energy is evolving in time and that it possibly crossed the phantom divide in the past. So far the only theories that lead to such a behavior involve a non-trivial coupling between dark…
If an ultraviolet fixed point renders quantum gravity renormalizable, the effective potential for a singlet scalar field -- the cosmon -- can be computed according to the corresponding scaling solution of the renormalization group…
The standard energy conditions of classical general relativity are (mostly) linear in the stress-energy tensor, and have clear physical interpretations in terms of geodesic focussing, but suffer the significant drawback that they are often…
Exotic spacetimes often require violations of the weak energy condition (WEC), a feat that is difficult to achieve with realistic matter. We explore a conservative route to WEC violation within an effective field theory (EFT) by adding a…
In the semiclassical quantum gravity derived from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the energy density of a matter field loses quantum coherence due to the induced gauge potential from the parametric interaction with gravity in a non-static…
This paper initiates a program which seeks to study the allowed spatial distributions of negative energy density in quantum field theory. Here we deal with free fields in Minkowski spacetime. Known restrictions on time integrals of the…
In the recently suggested modified non-metricity gravity theory with boundary terms in a flat FLRWspacetime universe, dark energy scenarios of cosmological models are examined in this study. An arbitrary function, $f(Q, C)=Q+{\alpha}C^{2}$,…
It was recently shown by Whinnett & Torres \cite{WT} that the phenomenon of spontaneous scalarization (SC) in compact objects (polytropes) was accompanied also by a {\it spontaneous violation of the weak energy condition} (WEC). Notably, by…
Recent DESI DR2 observations indicate that dark energy has crossed from phantom to quintessence regime, a behavior known as the quintom-B realization. In this work we constrain dynamical dark energy and modified gravity using the swampland…
In a recent paper \cite{Artymowski:2020zwy} we suggested the possibility that the present acceleration of the Universe is due to thermodynamical behavior of unparticles. The model is free of scalar fields, modified gravity, a Cosmological…
The current vacuum energy density observed as dark energy ${ \rho }_{ \rm dark }\simeq 2.5\times10^{-47}\ {\rm GeV^{4}}$ is unacceptably small compared with any other scales. Therefore, we encounter serious fine-tuning problem and…
Three very recent articles have claimed that it is possible to, at least in theory, either set up positive energy warp drives satisfying the weak energy condition (WEC), or at the very least, to minimize the WEC violations. These claims are…
Linear cosmological perturbations of a large class of modified gravity and dark energy models can be unified in the effective field theory of cosmic acceleration, encompassing Horndeski scalar-tensor theories and beyond. The fully available…