Abstract
A Friedman cosmology is investigated based on scalar-tensor gravitation with general metric coupling and scalar potential functions. We show that for a broad class of such functions, the scalar field can be dynamically trapped using a recently suggested mechanism. The trapped scalar can drive inflation and accelerated cosmic expansion, compatible with standard requirements. The inflationary phase admits a natural exit with a value of the Hubble parameter dictated by the duration of inflation in a parameter independent manner. For inflationary duration consistent with the GUT description, the resulting Hubble parameter is found to be consistent with its observed value.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3761-3765 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Physics Letters A |
Volume | 380 |
Issue number | 45 |
Early online date | 28 Sept 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 25 Nov 2016 |
Bibliographical note
The authors are grateful for financial support to the Cruickshank Trust (CW), EPSRC/GG-Top (CW, JR), Omani Government (MA), Science Without Borders programme, CNPq, Brazil (DR), and STFC/CfFP (CW, AM, RB, JM). CW and AMacknowledge the hospitality of CERN, where this work was started. The University of Aberdeen and University of Edinburgh are charitable bodies registered in Scotland, with respective registration numbers SC013683 and SC005336.
Keywords
- Modified theories of gravity
- cosmic inflation
- dark energy