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

References in corpus (6)

• Models of f(R) Cosmic Acceleration that Evade Solar-System Tests
• Approaches to Understanding Cosmic Acceleration
• A Singularity Problem with f(R) Dark Energy
• de Sitter space and the equivalence between f(R) and scalar-tensor gravity
• Dark energy, the colored anti-de Sitter vacuum, and LHC phenomenology
• Problems with Modified Theories of Gravity, as Alternatives to Dark Energy

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Modified GBIG Scenario as an Alternative for Dark Energy
• Dynamical-Screening and the Phantom-Like Effects in a DGP-Inspired $F(R,\varphi )$ Model