A primer on problems and prospects of dark energy

Abstract

This review on dark energy is intended for a wider audience, beginners as well as experts. It contains important notes on various aspects of dark energy and its alternatives. The section on Newtonian cosmology followed by heuristic arguments to capture the pressure effects allows us to discuss the basic features of physics of cosmic acceleration without actually resorting to the framework of general theory of relativity. The brief discussion on observational aspects of dark energy is followed by a detailed exposition of underlying features of scalar field dynamic relevant to cosmology. The review includes pedagogical presentation of generic features of models of dark energy and its possible alternatives.

23 pages and 10 figures,invited review for Curr. Sci, final version

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• Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae
• Dynamics of dark energy
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• Gauss-Bonnet Quintessence: Background Evolution, Large Scale Structure and Cosmological Constraints
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• Unravelling the Dark Matter - Dark Energy Paradigm
• Inflation With Oscillations

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Dark energy equation of state parameter and its variation at low redshifts
• Thermodynamics in $f(R)$ gravity in the Palatini formalism
• Comparison of Recent SnIa datasets
• Modified GBIG Scenario as an Alternative for Dark Energy
• Dynamical-Screening and the Phantom-Like Effects in a DGP-Inspired $F(R,\varphi )$ Model
• Scalar-field Pressure in Induced Gravity with Higgs Potential and Dark Matter
• On Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker cosmologies in non-standard gravity
• Gravitational Collapse of Anisotropic Compact Stars in Modified $f(R)$ Gravity