Modified Gravity and Cosmology

Euclid is a European Space Agency medium-class mission selected for launch in 2020 within the cosmic vision 2015–2025 program. The main goal of Euclid is to understand the origin of the accelerated expansion of the universe. Euclid will explore the expansion history of the universe and the evolution of cosmic structures by measuring shapes and red-shifts of galaxies as well as the distribution of clusters of galaxies over a large fraction of the sky. Although the main driver for Euclid is the nature of dark energy, Euclid science covers a vast range of topics, from cosmology to galaxy evolution to planetary research. In this review we focus on cosmology and fundamental physics, with a strong emphasis on science beyond the current standard models. We discuss five broad topics: dark energy and modified gravity, dark matter, initial conditions, basic assumptions and questions of methodology in the data analysis. This review has been planned and carried out within Euclid’s Theory Working Group and is meant to provide a guide to the scientific themes that will underlie the activity of the group during the preparation of the Euclid mission.

/pdf/cosmology-and-fundamental-physics-with-the-euclid-satellite-1pi37a138r.pdf

Cosmology and Fundamental Physics with the Euclid Satellite

We study the effective field theory of inflation, i.e. the most general theory describing the fluctuations around a quasi de Sitter background, in the case of single field models. The scalar mode can be eaten by the metric by going to unitary gauge. In this gauge, the most general theory is built with the lowest dimension operators invariant under spatial diffeomorphisms, like g00 and Kμν, the extrinsic curvature of constant time surfaces. This approach allows us to characterize all the possible high energy corrections to simple slow-roll inflation, whose sizes are constrained by experiments. Also, it describes in a common language all single field models, including those with a small speed of sound and Ghost Inflation, and it makes explicit the implications of having a quasi de Sitter background. The non-linear realization of time diffeomorphisms forces correlation among different observables, like a reduced speed of sound and an enhanced level of non-Gaussianity.

/pdf/the-effective-field-theory-of-inflation-4ega8u48ad.pdf

The Effective Field Theory of Inflation

The observable universe could be a 1 + 3-surface (the “brane”) embedded in a 1 + 3 + d-dimensional spacetime (the “bulk”), with Standard Model particles and fields trapped on the brane while gravity is free to access the bulk. At least one of the d extra spatial dimensions could be very large relative to the Planck scale, which lowers the fundamental gravity scale, possibly even down to the electroweak (∼ TeV) level. This revolutionary picture arises in the framework of recent developments in M theory. The 1 + 10-dimensional M theory encompasses the known 1 + 9-dimensional superstring theories, and is widely considered to be a promising potential route to quantum gravity. General relativity cannot describe gravity at high enough energies and must be replaced by a quantum gravity theory, picking up significant corrections as the fundamental energy scale is approached. At low energies, gravity is localized at the brane and general relativity is recovered, but at high energies gravity “leaks” into the bulk, behaving in a truly higher-dimensional way. This introduces significant changes to gravitational dynamics and perturbations, with interesting and potentially testable implications for high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and cosmology. Brane-world models offer a phenomenological way to test some of the novel predictions and corrections to general relativity that are implied by M theory. This review discusses the geometry, dynamics and perturbations of simple brane-world models for cosmology and astrophysics, mainly focusing on warped 5-dimensional brane-worlds based on the Randall-Sundrum models.

Brane-World Gravity

We review recent progress in massive gravity. We start by showing how different theories of massive gravity emerge from a higher-dimensional theory of general relativity, leading to the Dvali-Gabadadze-Porrati model, cascading gravity and ghost-free massive gravity. We then explore their theoretical and phenomenological consistency, proving the absence of Boulware-Deser ghosts and reviewing the Vainshtein mechanism and the cosmological solutions in these models. Finally we present alternative and related models of massive gravity such as new massive gravity, Lorentz-violating massive gravity and non-local massive gravity.

Massive Gravity

We study the slow-roll inflationary dynamics in a self-gravitating induced gravity braneworld model with a bulk cosmological constant. For we find important corrections to the four-dimensional Friedmann equation which bring the standard chaotic inflationary scenario into closer agreement with recent observations. For we find five-dimensional corrections to the Friedmann equation, which give the known Randall–Sundrum results for the inflationary parameters.

Chaotic inflation on the brane with induced gravity

An analysis of a spherically symmetric braneworld configuration is performed when the intrinsic curvature scalar is included in the bulk action. In the case when the electric part of the Weyl tensor is zero, all the exterior solutions are found; one of them is of the Schwarzschild-(A)dS 4 form, which is matched to a modified Oppenheimer-Volkoff interior solution. In the case when the electric part of the Weyl tensor is non zero, the exterior Schwarzschild-(A)dS 4 black hole solution is modified receiving corrections from the non-local bulk effects. A non-universal gravitational constant arises, depending on the density of the considered object and the Newton’s law is modified for small and large distances; however, the conventional limits are easily obtained.

Black Hole Solutions in Braneworlds with Induced Gravity

We study the regularization of the codimension-2 singularities in six-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell axisymmetric models with warping. These singularities are replaced by codimension-1 branes of a ring form, situated around the axis of symmetry. We assume that there is a brane scalar field with Goldstone dynamics, which is known to generate a brane energy momentum tensor of a particular structure necessary for the above regularization to be successful. We study these compactifications in both a non-supersymmetric and a supersymmetric setting. We see that in the non-supersymmetric case, there is a restriction to the admissible warpings and furthermore to the quantum numbers of the bulk gauge field and the brane scalar field. On the contrary, in the supersymmetric case, the warping can be arbitrary.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1126-6708/2007/03/002/pdf

Vassilios Zamarias

Papers

Chaotic inflation on the brane with induced gravity

Black Hole Solutions in Braneworlds with Induced Gravity

Regularization of conical singularities in warped six-dimensional compactifications

Regularization of conical singularities in warped six-dimensional compactifications

Induced cosmology on a regularized brane in six-dimensional flux compactification