Curing singularities in cosmological evolution of F ( R ) gravity
Alexei A Starobinsky2010, Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
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Abstract
We study F (R) modified gravity models which are capable of driving the accelerating epoch of the Universe at the present time whilst not destroying the standard Big Bang and inflationary cosmology. Recent studies have shown that a weak curvature singularity with |R| → ∞ can arise generically in viable F (R) models of present dark energy (DE) signaling an internal incompleteness of these models. In this work we study how this problem is cured by adding a quadratic correction with a sufficiently small coefficient to the F (R) function at large curvatures. At the same time, this correction eliminates two more serious problems of previously constructed viable F (R) DE models: unboundedness of the mass of a scalar particle (scalaron) arising in F (R) gravity and the scalaron overabundance problem. Such carefully constructed models can also yield both an early time inflationary epoch and a late time de Sitter phase with vastly different values of R. The reheating epoch in these combined models of primordial and present dark energy is completely different from that of the old R + R 2 /6M 2 inflationary model, mainly due to the fact that values of the effective gravitational constant at low and intermediate curvatures are different for positive and negative R. This changes the number of e-folds during the observable part of inflation that results in a different value of the primordial power spectrum index. 1. Introduction 1 2. Review of cosmological evolution 7 2.1 Non-linear oscillations and existence of a "sudden" singularity with |R| → ∞ 8 2.2 General viable F (R) models of present DE 11 2.3 Determination of the Hubble parameter 12 2.4 Structure of a singularity with F ′′ (R) = 0 for a finite R 13 3. Avoiding the weak singularity and solving the problems of F (R) DE models 13 4. Inflation and late time acceleration from one F (R) function 17 4.1 New problem 18 4.2 Resolution of the problem and the improved AB model 19 4.3 de Sitter attractors 19 4.4 Slow-roll inflation 20 4.5 Reheating 21 4.5.1 Evolution of H(t) without backreaction 22 4.5.2 Effect of backreaction 27 4.6 Cosmological evolution 29 5. Conclusions and discussion 32
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