Classical and Quantum f(R) Cosmology: The Big Rip, the Little Rip and the Little Sibling of the Big Rip

The big rip, the little rip and the little sibling of the big rip are cosmological doomsdays predicted by some phantom dark-energy models that could describe the future evolution of our universe. When the universe evolves towards either of these future cosmic events, all bounded structures and, ultimately, space–time itself are ripped apart. Nevertheless, it is commonly believed that quantum gravity effects may smooth or even avoid these classically predicted singularities. In this review, we discuss the classical and quantum occurrence of these riplike events in the scheme of metric f(R) theories of gravity. The quantum analysis is performed in the framework of f(R) quantum geometrodynamics. In this context, we analyze the fulfilment of the DeWitt criterion for the avoidance of these singular fates. This review contains as well new unpublished work (the analysis of the equation of state for the phantom fluid and a new quantum treatment of the big rip and the little sibling of the big rip events).

Matter production effects and interacting scenario within a reconstructed mimetic cosmology for late times

In this work we explore two possible scenarios that can be considered to extend a recent proposed model by the authors known as reconstructed mimetic cosmology. This study is complemented with an statistical analysis for each case. The first scenario considers the inclusion of matter production as a possible source of cosmic expansion in the reconstructed mimetic model, at effective level was found that this construction can cross the phantom divide, the model evolves from quintessence to phantom dark energy. The second scenario corresponds to a construction of an interacting scheme for the dark sector which is described by the unified mimetic model. The resulting interaction term (not imposed by an Ansatz), Q, exhibits changes of sign leading to the violation of the second law along the cosmic evolution and non adiabaticity; the temperatures for the components of the dark sector are computed and such components are shown to be out of thermal equilibrium.

Interplay between Swampland and Bayesian Machine Learning in constraining cosmological models

Constraints on a dark energy dominated Universe are obtained from an interplay Bayesian (Probabilistic) Machine Learning and string Swampland criteria. Unlike in previous studies, here, the field traverse itself has been used to constraint the theory and reveal its connection to the Swampland approach. The field traverse based Bayesian (Probabilistic) Learning approach is applied to two toy models. A parametrization of the Hubble constant is used for the first model, while a parametrization of the deceleration parameter is considered for the second one. The results obtained here allow to estimate how the high-redshift behavior of the Universe will affect the low-redshift one. Moreover, the adopted approach may highlight, in the future, the borders of the Swampland for the low-redshift Universe and help to develop new string-theory motivated dark energy models. The most important message from our study is a hint that the string Swampland criteria might be in tension with recent observations indicating that phantom dark energy cannot be in the Swampland. Finally, another interesting result obtained in our study is a spontaneous sign switch in the dark energy equation of state parameter when the field traverses are in the $$z\in [0,5]$$ z ∈ [ 0 , 5 ] redshift range, a remarkable phenomenon requiring further analysis.

A combined analysis of the H0 late time direct measurements and the impact on the Dark Energy sector

ABSTRACT We combine 23 Hubble constant measurements based on Cepheids-SN Ia, TRGB-SN Ia, Miras-SN Ia, Masers, Tully Fisher, Surface Brightness Fluctuations, SN II, Time-delay Lensing, Standard Sirens and γ-ray Attenuation, obtaining our best optimistic H0 estimate, that is H0 = 72.94 ± 0.75 km s–1 Mpc–1 at 68 per cent CL. This is in 5.9σ tension with the ΛCDM model, therefore we evaluate its impact on the extended Dark Energy cosmological models that can alleviate the tension. We find more than 4.9σ evidence for a phantom Dark Energy equation of state in the wCDM scenario, the cosmological constant ruled out at more than 3σ in a w0waCDM model and more than 5.7σ evidence for a coupling between Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the IDE scenario. Finally, we check the robustness of our results; and we quote two additional combinations of the Hubble constant. The ultra-conservative estimate, H0 = 72.7 ± 1.1 km s–1 Mpc–1 at 68 per cent CL, is obtained removing the Cepheids-SN Ia and the Time-Delay Lensing based measurements, and confirms the evidence for new physics.

Phantom dark energy from scalar-torsion coupling

We show that a scalar field without a kinetic term in the Lagrangian density, coupled to the covariant divergence of the torsion vector in the Einstein–Cartan theory of gravity, becomes kinetic in its general-relativistic equivalent formulation. The resulting kinetic term is negative: such a scalar field could be a source of phantom dark energy.

A crucial test of the phantom closed cosmological model

ABSTRACT We suggest a crucial direct-observational test for measuring distinction between the standard ΛCDM model and recently proposed phantom dark energy positive curvature cosmological model. The test is based on the fundamental distance–flux–redshift relation for general Friedmann models. It does not depend on the CMBR data, on the large-scale structure growth models, and also on the value of the Hubble constant H0. Our crucial test can be performed by future gamma-ray burst observations with THESEUS space mission and by using gravitational-wave standard siren observations with modern advanced LIGO–Virgo and also forthcoming LISA detectors.