Sudden gravitational transition

Robert R. Caldwell, William Komp, Leonard Parker, and Daniel A. T. Vanzella
Phys. Rev. D 73, 023513 – Published 19 January 2006

Abstract

We investigate the properties of a cosmological scenario which undergoes a gravitational phase transition at late times. In this scenario, the Universe evolves according to general relativity in the standard, hot big bang picture until a redshift z1. Nonperturbative phenomena associated with a minimally-coupled scalar field catalyzes a transition, whereby an order parameter consisting of curvature quantities such as R2, RabRab, RabcdRabcd acquires a constant expectation value. The ensuing cosmic acceleration appears driven by a dark-energy component with an equation-of-state w<1. We evaluate the constraints from type 1a supernovae, the cosmic microwave background, and other cosmological observations. We find that a range of models making a sharp transition to cosmic acceleration are consistent with observations.

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  • Received 4 August 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.73.023513

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Robert R. Caldwell1, William Komp2, Leonard Parker3, and Daniel A. T. Vanzella4

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 USA
  • 2Physics Department, University of Louisville, 102 Natural Sciences, Louisville, Kentucky 40292 USA
  • 3Physics Department, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201 USA
  • 4Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo (IFSC-USP), Av. Trabalhador São-carlense, 400 Cx. Postal 369 - CEP 13560-970, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

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Issue

Vol. 73, Iss. 2 — 15 January 2006

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