Dark-energy cosmological models in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>) gravity

We discuss dark-energy cosmological models in f(G) gravity. For this purpose, a locally rotationally symmetric Bianchi type I cosmological model is considered. First, exact solutions with a well-known form of the f(G) model are explored. One general solution is discussed using a power-law f(G) gravity model and physical quantities are calculated. In particular, Kasner’s universe is recovered and the corresponding f(G) gravity models are reported. Second, the energy conditions for the model under consideration are discussed using graphical analysis. It is concluded that solutions with f(G) = G^5/6 support expansion of universe while those with f(G) = G^1/2 do not favor the current expansion.     

Cosmic acceleration in non-flat <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) cosmology

We study f(T) cosmological models inserting a non-vanishing spatial curvature and discuss its consequences on cosmological dynamics. To figure this out, a polynomial f(T) model and a double torsion model are considered. We first analyze those models with cosmic data, employing the recent surveys of Union 2.1, baryonic acoustic oscillation and cosmic microwave background measurements. We then emphasize that the two popular f(T) models enable the crossing of the phantom divide line due to dark torsion. Afterwards, we compute numerical bounds up to 3-\(\sigma \) confidence level, emphasizing the fact that \(\Omega _{k0}\) turns out to be non-compatible with zero at least at 1\(\sigma \). Moreover, we underline that, even increasing the accuracy, one cannot remove the degeneracy between our models and the \(\Lambda \)CDM paradigm. So that, we show that our treatments contain the concordance paradigm and we analyze the equation of state behaviors at different redshift domains. We also take into account gamma ray bursts and we describe the evolution of both the f(T) models with high redshift data. We calibrate the gamma ray burst measurements through small redshift surveys of data and we thus compare the main differences between non-flat and flat f(T) cosmology at different redshift ranges. We finally match the corresponding outcomes with small redshift bounds provided by cosmography. To do so, we analyze the deceleration parameters and their variations, proportional to the jerk term. Even though the two models well fit late-time data, we notice that the polynomial f(T) approach provides an effective de-Sitter phase, whereas the second f(T) framework shows analogous results compared with the \(\Lambda \)CDM predictions.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity solutions for evolving wormholes

The scalar–tensor f(R) theory of gravity is considered in the framework of a simple inhomogeneous space-time model. In this research we use the reconstruction technique to look for possible evolving wormhole solutions within viable f(R) gravity formalism. These f(R) models are then constrained so that they are consistent with existing experimental data. Energy conditions related to the matter threading the wormhole are analyzed graphically and are in general found to obey the null energy conditions (NEC) in regions around the throat, while in the limit \(f(R)=R,\) NEC can be violated at large in regions around the throat.     

Dynamics of anisotropic power-law <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) cosmology

Modified theories of gravity have attracted much attention of the researchers in the recent years. In particular, the f(R) theory has been investigated extensively due to important f(R) gravity models in cosmological contexts. This paper is devoted to exploring an anisotropic universe in metric f(R) gravity. A locally rotationally symmetric Bianchi type I cosmological model is considered for this purpose. Exact solutions of modified field equations are obtained for a well-known f(R) gravity model. The energy conditions are also discussed for the model under consideration. The viability of the model is investigated via graphical analysis using the present-day values of cosmological parameters. The model satisfies null energy, weak energy, and dominant energy conditions for a particular range of the anisotropy parameter while the strong energy condition is violated, which shows that the anisotropic universe in f(R) gravity supports the crucial issue of accelerated expansion of the universe.     

Horizon thermodynamics in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) theory

We investigate whether the new horizon first law proposed recently still work in f(R) theory. We identify the entropy and the energy of black hole as quantities proportional to the corresponding value of integration, supported by the fact that the new horizon first law holds true as a consequence of equations of motion in f(R) theories. The formulas for the entropy and energy of black hole found here are in agreement with the results obtained in literatures. For applications, some nontrivial black hole solutions in f(R) theories have been considered, the entropies and the energies of black holes in these models are firstly computed, which may be useful for future researches.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity constraints from gravitational waves

The recent LIGO observation sparked interest in the field of gravitational wave signals. Besides the gravitational wave observation the LIGO collaboration used the inspiraling black hole pair to constrain the graviton mass. Unlike general relativity, f(R) theories have a characteristic non-zero mass graviton. We apply this constraint on the graviton mass to viable f(R) models in order to find the effects on model parameters. We find it possible to constrain the parameter space with these gravity wave based observations. We consider the popular Hu–Sawicki model as a case study and find an appropriate parameter bracket. The result generalizes to other f(R) theories and can be used to constrain the parameter space.     

Exploring plane-symmetric solutions in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity

The modified theories of gravity, especially the f(R) gravity, have attracted much attention in the last decade. This paper is devoted to exploring plane-symmetric solutions in the context of metric f(R) gravity. We extend the work on static plane-symmetric vacuum solutions in f(R) gravity already available in the literature [1, 2]. The modified field equations are solved using the assumptions of both constant and nonconstant scalar curvature. Some well-known solutions are recovered with power-law and logarithmic forms of f(R) models.     

Graviton and scalar propagations on AdS<Subscript>4</Subscript> space in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravities

We investigate propagations of graviton and additional scalar on four-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS₄) space using f(R) gravity models with external sources. It is shown that there is the van Dam–Veltman–Zakharov (vDVZ) discontinuity in f(R) gravity models because f(R) gravity implies GR with additional scalar. This clearly indicates a difference between general relativity and f(R) gravity.     

Black-hole solutions in <Emphasis Type="Italic">F</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity with conformal anomaly

In this paper, we consider F(R)=R+f(R) theory instead of Einstein gravity with conformal anomaly and look for its analytical solutions. Depending on the free parameters, one may obtain both uncharged and charged solutions for some classes of F(R) models. Calculation of Kretschmann scalar shows that there is a singularity located at r=0. The geometry of uncharged (charged) solution corresponds to the Schwarzschild (Reissner–Nordström) singularity. Further, we discuss the viability of our models in detail. We show that these models can be stable, depending on their parameters and in different epochs of the universe.     

Warm inflation in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>) theory of gravity

The aim of this paper is to explore warm inflation in the background of f(G) theory of gravity using scalar fields for the FRW universe model. We construct the field equations under slow-roll approximations and evaluate the slow-roll parameters, scalar and tensor power spectra and their corresponding spectral indices using viable power-law model. These parameters are evaluated for a constant as well as variable dissipation factor during intermediate and logamediate inflationary epochs. We also find the number of e-folds and tensor- scalar ratio for each case. The graphical behavior of these parameters proves that the isotropic model in f(G) gravity is compatible with observational Planck data.     

Spherical Symmetric Perfect Fluid Collapse in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) Gravity

This paper contains the study of spherically symmetric perfect fluid collapse in the frame work of f(R, T) modified theory of gravity. We proceed our work by considering the non-static spherically symmetric background in the interior and static spherically symmetric background in the exterior regions of the star. The junction conditions between exterior and interior regions are presented by matching the exterior and interior regions. The field equations are solved by taking the assumptions that the Ricci scalar as well as the trace of energy-momentum tensor are to be constant, for a particular f(R, T) model. By inserting the solution of the field equations in junction conditions, we evaluate the gravitational mass of the collapsing system. Also, we discuss the apparent horizons and their time formation for different possible cases. It is concluded that the term f(R ₀, T ₀) behaves as a source of repulsive force and that’s why it slowdowns the collapse of the matter.     

Bianchi V cosmological model in Palatini <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity

We apply the dynamical systems approach to investigate the spatially homogeneous and anisotropic Bianchi type V models for the Palatini version of f(R) gravity. In particular, we examine the existence of equilibrium points along with their exact solutions and stability properties for two different forms of f(R). Moreover, the evolution of shear and spatial curvature by performing the phase space analysis are studied and also the phases of evolution from anisotropic universe to the stable de-Sitter flat universe are discussed.     

Violation of causality in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) gravity

In the standard formulation, the f(T) field equations are not invariant under local Lorentz transformations, and thus the theory does not inherit the causal structure of special relativity. Actually, even locally violation of causality can occur in this formulation of f(T) gravity. A locally Lorentz covariant f(T) gravity theory has been devised recently, and this local causality problem seems to have been overcome. The non-locality question, however, is left open. If gravitation is to be described by this covariant f(T) gravity theory there are a number of issues that ought to be examined in its context, including the question as to whether its field equations allow homogeneous Gödel-type solutions, which necessarily leads to violation of causality on non-local scale. Here, to look into the potentialities and difficulties of the covariant f(T) theories, we examine whether they admit Gödel-type solutions. We take a combination of a perfect fluid with electromagnetic plus a scalar field as source, and determine a general Gödel-type solution, which contains special solutions in which the essential parameter of Gödel-type geometries, \(m^2\), defines any class of homogeneous Gödel-type geometries. We show that solutions of the trigonometric and linear classes (\(m^2 < 0\) and \(m=0\)) are permitted only for the combined matter sources with an electromagnetic field matter component. We extended to the context of covariant f(T) gravity a theorem which ensures that any perfect-fluid homogeneous Gödel-type solution defines the same set of Gödel tetrads \(h_A^{~\mu }\) up to a Lorentz transformation. We also showed that the single massless scalar field generates Gödel-type solution with no closed time-like curves. Even though the covariant f(T) gravity restores Lorentz covariance of the field equations and the local validity of the causality principle, the bare existence of the Gödel-type solutions makes apparent that the covariant formulation of f(T) gravity does not preclude non-local violation of causality in the form of closed time-like curves.     

Noether symmetries in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">G</Emphasis>) gravity

We explore Noether symmetries of the Friedmann–Robertson–Walker universe model in modified Gauss–Bonnet gravity for both vacuum and nonvacuum (dust fluid) cases. We evaluate symmetry generators and the corresponding conserved quantities by using separation of variables and a power-law form. We construct exact f(G) models and study accelerating expansion of the universe in terms of a scale factor, deceleration, and the EoS parameters. We also check the validity of energy conditions through the weak energy conditions for our constructed model. The state finder parameters indicate the resemblance of our constructed models to the ΛCDM model. We conclude that our results are consistent with the recent astrophysical observations.     

Model-independent reconstruction of <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) teleparallel cosmology

We propose a model-independent formalism to numerically solve the modified Friedmann equations in the framework of f(T) teleparallel cosmology. Our strategy is to expand the Hubble parameter around the redshift \(z=0\) up to a given order and to adopt cosmographic bounds as initial settings to determine the corresponding \(f(z)\equiv f(T(H(z)))\) function. In this perspective, we distinguish two cases: the first expansion is up to the jerk parameter, the second expansion is up to the snap parameter. We show that inside the observed redshift domain \(z\le 1\), only the net strength of f(z) is modified passing from jerk to snap, whereas its functional behavior and shape turn out to be identical. As first step, we set the cosmographic parameters by means of the most recent observations. Afterwards, we calibrate our numerical solutions with the concordance \(\Lambda \)CDM model. In both cases, there is a good agreement with the cosmological standard model around \(z\le 1\), with severe discrepancies outer of this limit. We demonstrate that the effective dark energy term evolves following the test-function: \(f(z)={\mathcal {A}}+{\mathcal {B}}{z}^2e^{{\mathcal {C}}{z}}\). Bounds over the set \(\left\{ {\mathcal {A}}, {\mathcal {B}}, {\mathcal {C}}\right\} \) are also fixed by statistical considerations, comparing discrepancies between f(z) with data. The approach opens the possibility to get a wide class of test-functions able to frame the dynamics of f(T) without postulating any model a priori. We thus re-obtain the f(T) function through a back-scattering procedure once f(z) is known. We figure out the properties of our f(T) function at the level of background cosmology, to check the goodness of our numerical results. Finally, a comparison with previous cosmographic approaches is carried out giving results compatible with theoretical expectations.     

Friedmann Cosmology with Matter Creation in Modified <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) Gravity

The theoretical and observational consequences of thermodynamics of open systems which allow matter creation, are investigated in modified f(R, T) (R is the Ricci scalar and T is the trace of energy-momentum tensor) theory of gravity within the framework of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker line element. The simplest model f(R, T)=R+2f(T) with “gamma-law” equation of state p = (γ?1)ρ is assumed to obtain the exact solution. A power-law expansion model is proposed by considering the natural phenomenological particle creation rate ψ = 3β n H, where β is a pure number of the order of unity, n the particle number density and H is the Hubble parameter. A Big Rip singularity is observed for γ<0 describing phantom cosmology. The accelerated expansion of the Universe is driven by the particle creation. The density parameter shows the negative curvature of the Universe due to particle creation. The entropy increases with the evolution of the Universe. Some kinematics tests such as lookback time, luminosity distance, proper distance, angular diameter versus redshift are discussed in detail to observe the role of particle creation in early and late time evolution of the Universe.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">O</Emphasis>(1) eV sterile neutrino in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity

We refer [1] to the role of an additional O(1) eV sterile neutrino in modified gravity models. We find parameter constraints in particular f(R) gravity model using following up-to-dated cosmological data: measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy, the CMB lensing potential, the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), the cluster mass function and the Hubble constant. It was obtained for the sterile neutrino mass 0.47 eV < m _ν,sterile < 1 eV (2σ) assuming that the sterile neutrinos are thermalized and the active neutrinos are massless, not significantly larger than in the standard cosmology model within the same data set: 0.45 eV < m _ν,sterile < 0.92 eV (2σ). But, if the mass of sterile neutrino is fixed and equals ≈ 1.5 eV according to various anomalies in neutrino oscillation experiments, f(R) gravity is much more consistent with observation data than the CDM model.     

Dark Energy Models in <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) Theory with Variable Deceleration Parameter

In this communication we have investigated Bianchi type-II dark energy (DE) cosmological models with and without presence of magnetic field in modified f(R, T) gravity theory as proposed by Harko et al. (Phys. Rev. D, 84, 024020, 2011). The exact solution of the field equations is obtained by setting the deceleration parameter q as a time function along with suitable assumption the scale factor \(a(t)= [sinh(\alpha t)]^{\frac {1}{n}}\), α and n are positive constant. We have obtained a class of accelerating and decelerating DE cosmological models for different values of n and α. The present study believes that the mysterious dark energy is the main responsible force for accelerating expansion of the universe. For our constructed models the DE candidates cosmological constant (Λ) and the EoS parameter (ω) both are found to be time varying quantities. The cosmological constant Λ is very large at early time and approaches to a small positive value at late time whereas the EoS parameters is found small negative at present time. Physical and kinematical properties of the models are discussed with the help of pictorial representations of the parameters. We have observed that our constructed models are compatible with recent cosmological observations.     

Cosmology from <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>,<Emphasis Type="Italic">T</Emphasis>) Theory in a Variant Speed of Light Scenario

In this work I present a generalization of f(R, T) gravity, by allowing the speed of light to vary. Cosmological solutions are presented for matter and radiation-dominated universes, the former allowing the universe expansion to accelerate while the latter contemplating a possible alternative to inflationary scenario. Remarkably, standard gravity is always retrieved for a special case of f(R, T).     

Strong energy condition and the repulsive character of <Emphasis Type="Italic">f</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">R</Emphasis>) gravity

The Raychaudhuri equation enables to examine the whole spacetime structure without specific solutions of Einstein’s equations, playing a central role for the understanding of the gravitational interaction in cosmology. In General Relativity, without considering a cosmological constant, a non-positive contribution in the Raychaudhuri equation is usually interpreted as the manifestation of the attractive character of gravity. In this case, particular energy conditions—indeed the strong energy condition—must be assumed in order to guarantee the attractive character. In the context of f(R) gravity, however, even assuming the standard energy conditions one may have a positive contribution to the Raychaudhuri equation. Besides providing a simple way to explain the observed cosmic acceleration, this fact opens the possibility of a repulsive character of this kind of gravity. In order to discuss physical bounds on f(R) models, we address the attractive/non-attractive character of f(R) gravity considering the Raychaudhuri equation and assuming the strong energy condition along with recent estimates of the cosmographic parameters.