Related papers: Accelerated Expansion: Theory and Observations
Current observations of Type Ia supernovae provide evidence for cosmic acceleration out to a redshift of $z \lsim 1$, leading to the possibility that the universe is entering an inflationary epoch. However, inflation can take place only if…
For two decades the hot big-bang model as been referred to as the standard cosmology -- and for good reason. For just as long cosmologists have known that there are fundamental questions that are not answered by the standard cosmology and…
We consider scalar tensor theories of gravity assuming that the scalar field is non minimally coupled with gravity. We use this theory to study evolution of a flat homogeneous and isotropic universe. In this case the dynamical equations can…
The discovery that the Universe is accelerating in its expansion has brought the basic concept of cosmic expansion into question. An analysis of the evolution of this concept suggests that the paradigm that was finally settled into prior to…
The expansion of our universe, when followed backward in time, implies that it emerged from a phase of huge density, the big bang. These stages are so extreme that classical general relativity combined with matter theories is not able to…
The changes of main paradigms on the structure and evolution of the Universe are reviewed. Two puzzles of the modern cosmology, the mean density of matter and the regularity of the Universe on large scales, as well as the possibility to…
The accelerating expansion of the universe is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades, implying that the universe is dominated by some form of "dark energy" with exotic physical properties, or that Einstein's theory of…
We consider here a spherically symmetric but inhomogeneous universe filled with a massless scalar field. The model obeys two constraints. The first one is that the gradient of the scalar field is timelike everywhere. The second constraint…
Recent developments in cosmology suggest that much of the universe is in a state of explosive, accelerated expansion, called inflation. We live in a "bubble" where inflation has ended, and other bubbles with diverse properties are…
The pre--big bang cosmological scenario is studied within the context of the Brans--Dicke theory of gravity. An epoch of superinflationary expansion may occur in the pre--big bang phase of the Universe's history in a certain region of…
This is a very comprehensible review of some key issues in Modern Cosmology. Simple mathematical examples and analogies are always used, whenever available. The starting point is the well know Big Bang Cosmology (BBC). We deal with the…
The reason for the present accelerated expansion of the Universe stands as one of the most profound questions in the realm of science, with deep connections to both cosmology and fundamental physics. From a cosmological point of view,…
The Universe is currently in a phase of accelerated expansion, a fact that was experimentally proven in the late 1990s. Cosmological models involving scalar fields allow the description of this accelerated expansion regime in the Cosmos and…
We are experiencing a period of extreme intellectual effervescence in the area of cosmology. A huge volume of observational data in unprecedented quantity and quality and a more consistent theoretical framework propelled cosmology to an era…
One of the strongest arguments against the cosmological constant as an explanation of the current epoch of accelerated cosmic expansion is the existence of an earlier, dynamical acceleration, i.e. inflation. We examine the likelihood that…
In these lectures the present status of the so-called standard cosmological model, based on the hot Big Bang theory and the inflationary paradigm is reviewed. Special emphasis is given to the origin of the cosmological perturbations we see…
We discuss a cosmological model where the universe shrinks rather than expands during the radiation and matter dominated periods. Instead, the Planck mass and all particle masses grow exponentially, with the size of atoms shrinking…
We study the possibility to construct an observationally viable scenario where both early Inflation and the recently detected accelerated expansion of the universe can be explained by using a single scalar field associated with the Tachyon.…
In the present work, an attempt has been made to explain the recent cosmic acceleration with two mutually interacting scalar fields, one being the Brans-Dicke scalar field and the other a quintessence scalar field. Conditions have been…
In light of the recent observational data coming from the sky we have two significant directions in the field of theoretical cosmology recently. First, we are now able to make use of present observations, such as the Planck and BICEP2 data,…