We review in detail a number of approaches that have been adopted to try and explain the remarkable observation of our accelerating universe. In particular we discuss the arguments for and recent progress made towards understanding the nature of dark energy. We review the observational evidence for the current accelerated expansion of the universe and present a number of dark energy models in addition to the conventional cosmological constant, paying particular attention to scalar field models such as quintessence, K-essence, tachyon, phantom and dilatonic models. The importance of cosmological scaling solutions is emphasized when studying the dynamical system of scalar fields including coupled dark energy. We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations allowing us to confront them with the observation of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure and demonstrate how it is possible in principle to reconstruct the equation of state of dark energy by also using Supernovae Ia observational data. We also discuss in detail the nature of tracking solutions in cosmology, particle physics and braneworld models of dark energy, the nature of possible future singularities, the effect of higher order curvature terms to avoid a Big Rip singularity, and approaches to modifying gravity which leads to a late-time accelerated expansion without recourse to a new form of dark energy.

Dynamics of dark energy

Physics welcomes the idea that space contains energy whose gravitational effect approximates that of Einstein's cosmological constant, \ensuremath{\Lambda}; today the concept is termed dark energy or quintessence. Physics also suggests that dark energy could be dynamical, allowing for the arguably appealing picture of an evolving dark-energy density approaching its natural value, zero, and small now because the expanding universe is old. This would alleviate the classical problem of the curious energy scale of a millielectron volt associated with a constant \ensuremath{\Lambda}. Dark energy may have been detected by recent cosmological tests. These tests make a good scientific case for the context, in the relativistic Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre model, in which the gravitational inverse-square law is applied to the scales of cosmology. We have well-checked evidence that the mean mass density is not much more than one-quarter of the critical Einstein--de Sitter value. The case for detection of dark energy is not yet as convincing but still serious; we await more data, which may be derived from work in progress. Planned observations may detect the evolution of the dark-energy density; a positive result would be a considerable stimulus for attempts at understanding the microphysics of dark energy. This review presents the basic physics and astronomy of the subject, reviews the history of ideas, assesses the state of the observational evidence, and comments on recent developments in the search for a fundamental theory.

/pdf/the-cosmological-constant-and-dark-energy-1w78acsak0.pdf

The Cosmological Constant and Dark Energy

http://risa.stanford.edu/teaching/362/particledarkmatter.pdf

Particle dark matter: Evidence, candidates and constraints

Modified Gravity and Cosmology

We report on the implications for cosmic inflation of the 2018 Release of the Planck CMB anisotropy measurements. The results are fully consistent with the two previous Planck cosmological releases, but have smaller uncertainties thanks to improvements in the characterization of polarization at low and high multipoles. Planck temperature, polarization, and lensing data determine the spectral index of scalar perturbations to be $n_\mathrm{s}=0.9649\pm 0.0042$ at 68% CL and show no evidence for a scale dependence of $n_\mathrm{s}.$ Spatial flatness is confirmed at a precision of 0.4% at 95% CL with the combination with BAO data. The Planck 95% CL upper limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r_{0.002}<0.10$, is further tightened by combining with the BICEP2/Keck Array BK15 data to obtain $r_{0.002}<0.056$. In the framework of single-field inflationary models with Einstein gravity, these results imply that: (a) slow-roll models with a concave potential, $V" (\phi) < 0,$ are increasingly favoured by the data; and (b) two different methods for reconstructing the inflaton potential find no evidence for dynamics beyond slow roll. Non-parametric reconstructions of the primordial power spectrum consistently confirm a pure power law. A complementary analysis also finds no evidence for theoretically motivated parameterized features in the Planck power spectrum, a result further strengthened for certain oscillatory models by a new combined analysis that includes Planck bispectrum data. The new Planck polarization data provide a stringent test of the adiabaticity of the initial conditions. The polarization data also provide improved constraints on inflationary models that predict a small statistically anisotropic quadrupolar modulation of the primordial fluctuations. However, the polarization data do not confirm physical models for a scale-dependent dipolar modulation.

/pdf/planck-2015-results-xx-constraints-on-inflation-4lq02ohyyn.pdf

Planck 2015 results. XX. Constraints on inflation

In the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati (DGP) model, the "self-accelerating" solution is plagued by a ghost instability, which makes the solution untenable. This fact, as well as all interesting departures from general relativity (GR), are fully captured by a four-dimensional effective Lagrangian, valid at distances smaller than the present Hubble scale. The 4D effective theory involves a relativistic scalar pi, universally coupled to matter and with peculiar derivative self-interactions. In this paper, we study the connection between self-acceleration and the presence of ghosts for a quite generic class of theories that modify gravity in the infrared. These theories are defined as those that at distances shorter than cosmological, reduce to a certain generalization of the DGP 4D effective theory. We argue that for infrared modifications of GR locally due to a universally coupled scalar, our generalization is the only one that allows for a robust implementation of the Vainshtein effect-the decoupling of the scalar from matter in gravitationally bound systems-necessary to recover agreement with solar-system tests. Our generalization involves an internal Galilean invariance, under which pi's gradient shifts by a constant. This symmetry constrains the structure of the pi Lagrangian so much so that in 4D there exist only five terms that can yield sizable nonlinearities without introducing ghosts. We show that for such theories in fact there are "self-accelerating" de Sitter solutions with no ghostlike instabilities. In the presence of compact sources, these solutions can support spherically symmetric, Vainshtein-like nonlinear perturbations that are also stable against small fluctuations. We investigate a possible infrared completion of these theories at scales of order of the Hubble horizon, and larger. There are however some features of our theories that may constitute a problem at the theoretical or phenomenological level: the presence of superluminal excitations; the extreme subluminality of other excitations, which makes the quasistatic approximation for certain solar-system observables unreliable due to Cherenkov emission; the very low strong-interaction scale for pi pi scatterings.

Galileon as a local modification of gravity

Theories with Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking

In models with dynamical supersymmetry breaking in the hidden sector, the gaugino masses in the observable sector have been believed to be extremely suppressed (below 1 keV), unless there is a gauge singlet in the hidden sector with specific couplings to the observable sector gauge multiplets. We point out that there is a pure supergravity contribution to gaugino masses at the quantum level arising from the superconformal anomaly. Our results are valid to all orders in perturbation theory and are related to the ‘exact’ beta functions for soft terms. There is also an anomaly contribution to the A terms proportional to the beta function of the corresponding Yukawa coupling. The gaugino masses are proportional to the corresponding gauge beta functions, and so do not satisfy the usual GUT relations.

/pdf/gaugino-mass-without-singlets-32pzor5lp4.pdf

Gaugino mass without singlets

We argue that certain apparently consistent low-energy effective field theories described by local, Lorentzinvariant Lagrangians, secretly exhibit macroscopic non-locality and cannot be embedded in any UV theory whose S-matrix satisfies canonical analyticity constraints. The obstruction involves the signs of a set of leading irrelevant operators, which must be strictly positive to ensure UV analyticity. An IR manifestation of this restriction is that the “wrong” signs lead to superluminal fluctuations around non-trivial backgrounds, making it impossible to define local, causal evolution, and implying a surprising IR breakdown of the effective theory. Such effective theories can not arise in quantum field theories or weakly coupled string theories, whose S-matrices satisfy the usual analyticity properties. This conclusion applies to the DGP brane-world model modifying gravity in the IR, giving a simple explanation for the difficulty of embedding this model into controlled stringy backgrounds, and to models of electroweak symmetry breaking that predict negative anomalous quartic couplings for the W and Z. Conversely, any experimental support for the DGP model, or measured negative signs for anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings at future accelerators, would constitute direct evidence for the existence of superluminality and macroscopic non-locality unlike anything previously seen in physics, and almost incidentally falsify both local quantum field theory and perturbative string theory.

/pdf/causality-analyticity-and-an-ir-obstruction-to-uv-completion-22cu1hivl9.pdf

Causality, analyticity and an IR obstruction to UV completion

In an arbitrary unitary 4D CFT we consider a scalar operator phi, and the operator phi(2) defined as the lowest dimension scalar which appears in the OPE phi x phi with a nonzero coefficient. Using general considerations of OPE, conformal block decomposition, and crossing symmetry, we derive a theory-independent inequality [phi(2)] 1 we have f(d) = 2 + O(root d - 1), which shows that the free theory limit is approached continuously. We perform some checks of our bound. We find that the bound is satisfied by all weakly coupled 4D conformal fixed points that we are able to construct. The Wilson-Fischer fixed points violate the bound by a constant O( 1) factor, which must be due to the subtleties of extrapolating to 4 - epsilon dimensions. We use our method to derive an analogous bound in 2D, and check that the Minimal Models satisfy the bound, with the Ising model nearly-saturating it. Derivation of an analogous bound in 3D is currently not feasible because the explicit conformal blocks are not known in odd dimensions. We also discuss the main phenomenological motivation for studying this set of questions: constructing models of dynamical ElectroWeak Symmetry Breaking without flavor problems.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1126-6708/2008/12/031/pdf

Riccardo Rattazzi

Papers

Galileon as a local modification of gravity

Theories with Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking

Gaugino mass without singlets

Causality, analyticity and an IR obstruction to UV completion

Bounding scalar operator dimensions in 4D CFT