String-inspired cosmology: Late time transition from scaling matter era to dark energy universe caused by a Gauss-Bonnet coupling

Cosmological scaling solutions, which give rise to a scalar-field density proportional to a background fluid density during radiation and matter eras, are attractive to alleviate the energy scale problem of dark energy. In the presence of multiple scalar fields the scaling solution can exit to the epoch of cosmic acceleration through the so-called assisted inflation mechanism. We study cosmological dynamics of a multi-field system in details with a general Lagrangian density ...

In this work by using a numerical analysis, we investigate in a quantitative way the late-time dynamics of scalar coupled $f(R,\mathcal{G})$ gravity. Particularly, we consider a Gauss-Bonnet term coupled to the scalar field coupling function $\xi(\phi)$, and we study three types of models, one with $f(R)$ terms that are known to provide a viable late-time phenomenology, and two Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet types of models. Our aim is to write the Friedmann equation in terms of appro...

In this work we investigate the inflationary phenomenological implications of a recently developed ghost-free Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity. The resulting theory can be viewed as a scalar Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet theory of gravity, so by employing the formalism for cosmological perturbations for the latter theory, we calculate the slow-roll indices and the observational indices, and we compare these with the latest observational data. Due to the presence of a freely chosen func...

We derive conditions under which f(G) gravity models, whose Lagrangian densities f are written in terms of a Gauss-Bonnet term G, are cosmologically viable. The most crucial condition to be satisfied is that f_GG, the second derivative of f with respect to G, must be positive, which is required to ensure the stability of a late-time de-Sitter solution as well as the existence of standard radiation/matter dominated epochs. We present a number of explicit f(G) models in which a...

We present a new mechanism to condense a scalar field coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet term. We propose a scenario in which the condensed state will emerge from the background energy density in the late-Universe. During the radiation and dust-dominated eras, the energy density of the scalar field, $\rho_{\varphi}$, decreases at a slower rate than the background density. Eventually, $\rho_{\varphi}$ dominates over the energy density of dust and the scalar field could be condensed. ...

We investigate the stability against inhomogeneous perturbations and the appearance of ghost modes in Gauss-Bonnet gravitational theories with a non-minimally coupled scalar field, which can be regarded as either the dilaton or a compactification modulus in the context of string theory. Through cosmological linear perturbations we extract four no-ghost and two sub-luminal constraint equations, written in terms of background quantities, which must be satisfied for consistency....

The following issue is addressed: how the addition of a Gauss-Bonnet term (generically coming from most fundamental theories, as string and M theories), to a viable model, can change the specific properties, and even the physical nature, of the corresponding cosmological solutions? Specifically, brand new original dark energy models are obtained in this way with quite interesting properties, which exhibit, in a unified fashion, the three distinguished possible cosmological ph...

In the present manuscript the basic Einstein--Hilbert cosmological model is extended, by adding a new functional $F(G, T_{\mu\nu}T^{\mu\nu})$ in the fundamental action, encoding specific geometrical effects due to a nontrivial coupling with the Gauss-Bonnet invariant ($G$), and the energy--momentum squared term ($T_{\mu\nu}T^{\mu\nu}$). After obtaining the corresponding gravitational field equations for the specific decomposition where $F(G, T_{\mu\nu}T^{\mu\nu})=f(G)+g(T_{\m...

We propose a new model of $D=4$ Gauss-Bonnet gravity. To avoid the usual property of the integral over the standard $D=4$ Gauss-Bonnet scalar becoming a total derivative term, we employ the formalism of metric-independent non-Riemannian spacetime volume elements which makes the D=4 Gauss-Bonnet action term non-trivial without the need to couple it to matter fields unlike the case of ordinary D=4 Gauss-Bonnet gravity models. The non-Riemannian volume element dynamically trigge...

We present a brief review of various approaches to late time acceleration of universe. The cosmological relevance of scaling solutions is emphasized in case of scalar field models of dark energy. The underlying features of a variety of scalar field models is highlighted. Various alternatives to dark energy are discussed including the string curvature corrections to Einstein-Hilbert action, higher dimensional effects, non-locally corrected gravity and $f(R)$ theories of gravit...