Related papers: Comment on "On curvature coupling and quintessence…
We discuss the phenomenological model in which the potential energy of the quintessence field depends linearly on the energy density of the spatial curvature. We find that the pressure of the scalar field takes a different form when the…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of higher order theories of gravity. We can define effective pressure and energy density directly connected to the Ricci scalar of curvature of a generic…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of higher order curvature and torsion theories of gravity. We can define effective pressure and energy density directly connected to the curvature or to…
The issues of quintessence and cosmic acceleration can be discussed in the framework of theories which do not include necessarily scalar fields. It is possible to define pressure and energy density for new components considering effective…
Single-field models of accelerated expansion with nearly flat potentials, despite being able to provide observationally viable explanations for the early-time cosmic inflation and the late-time cosmic acceleration, are in strong tension…
The recent observations of type Ia supernovae strongly support that the universe is accelerating now and decelerated in the recent past. By assuming a general relation between the quintessence potential and the quintessence kinetic energy,…
Quintessence theories for cosmic acceleration imbue dark energy with a non-trivial dynamics that offers hope in distinguishing the physical origin of the component. We review quintessence models with an emphasis on this dynamics and discuss…
Recent observations indicate that the universe's expansion has been accelerating of late. But recent theoretical work has highlighted the difficulty of squaring acceleration with the underlying assumptions of string theory, disfavoring most…
There is marginal evidence that the quintessential form of matter responsible for the acceleration of the universe observed today has ratio between pressure and energy density $w<-1$. Such a regime, called superacceleration, cannot be…
Recent observations seem to suggest that our Universe is accelerating implying that it is dominated by a fluid whose equation of state is negative. Quintessence is a possible explanation. In particular, the concept of tracking solutions…
Models where the accelerated expansion of our Universe is caused by a quintessence scalar field are reviewed. In the framework of high energy physics, the physical nature of this field is discussed and its interaction with ordinary matter…
A cosmological model with perfect fluid and self-interacting quintessence field is considered in the framework of the spatially flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) geometry. By assuming that all physical quantities depend on the volume…
Quintessence issues can be achieved by taking into account higher order curvature invariants into the effective action of gravitational field. Such an approach is naturally related to fundamental theories of quantum gravity which predict…
This work explores the dynamical stability of cosmological models where dark matter and dark energy can non-minimally couple to spacetime (scalar) curvature. Two different scenarios are presented here. In the initial case, only dark matter…
Although quintessence models have attractive cosmological features, they face two major difficulties. First, it has not yet been possible to find one which convincingly realizes the goal of explaining present-day cosmic acceleration…
We study the dynamics of a quintessence model based on two interacting scalar fields. The model can account for the (recent) accelerated expansion of the Universe suggested by astronomical observations. Acceleration can be permanent or…
Observations seem to indicate that our universe is presently accelerating due to the presence of dark energy. Quintessence represents a possible way to model the dark energy. In these proceedings, we briefly review its main properties.
K-essence models, relying on scalar fields with non-canonical kinetic terms, have been proposed as an alternative to quintessence in explaining the observed acceleration of the Universe. We consider the use of field redefinitions to cast…
The present thesis is a collection of papers which deals with analytic models that can drive the present accelerated expansion of the universe, starting from a decelerated expansion in the early matter dominated regime. Both minimally and…
Dynamical vacuum energy or quintessence, a slowly varying and spatially inhomogeneous component of the energy density with negative pressure, is currently consistent with the observational data. One potential difficulty with the idea of…