English

Can nonlocal gravity really explain dark energy?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-05-03 v4 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

In view to scrutinize the idea that nonlocal modifications of General Relativity could dynamically address the dark energy problem, we investigate the evolution of the Universe at infrared scales as an Infinite Derivative Gravity model of the Ricci scalar, without introducing the cosmological constant Λ\Lambda or any scalar field. The accelerated expansion of the late Universe is shown to be compatible with the emergence of nonlocal gravitational effects at sufficiently low energies. A technique for circumventing the mathematical complexity of the nonlocal cosmological equations is developed and, after drawing a connection with the Starobinsky gravity, verifiable predictions are considered, like a possible decreasing in the strength of the effective gravitational constant. In conclusion, the emergence of nonlocal gravity corrections at given scales could be an efficient mechanism to address the dark energy problem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2403.11301,
  title  = {Can nonlocal gravity really explain dark energy?},
  author = {Salvatore Capozziello and Anupam Mazumdar and Giuseppe Meluccio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.11301},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

16 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Physics of the Dark Universe

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:23:25.077Z