Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background

Although the currently-accepted Concordance model of the Universe has been very successful observationally, it cannot resolve two main issues. Firstly, it cannot untangle the unknown nature of the cosmological constant in the Einstein Field Equations, which is responsible for the accelerated cosmolo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dusoye, Avishek
Other Authors: Dunsby, Peter Klaus
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics 2023
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867613215703171072
access_status_str Open Access
author Dusoye, Avishek
author2 Dunsby, Peter Klaus
author_browse Dunsby, Peter Klaus
Dusoye, Avishek
author_facet Dunsby, Peter Klaus
Dusoye, Avishek
author_sort Dusoye, Avishek
collection Thesis
description Although the currently-accepted Concordance model of the Universe has been very successful observationally, it cannot resolve two main issues. Firstly, it cannot untangle the unknown nature of the cosmological constant in the Einstein Field Equations, which is responsible for the accelerated cosmological expansion. Secondly, it cannot explain the σ8 tension, which occurs because the constraints upon galactic clustering by the Cosmic Microwave Background Planck experiments diverge from the large-scale measurement by the Dark Energy Survey. As an alternative to the cosmological constant, this thesis will be using a scalar field, namely the quintessence. Our studied cosmological model assumes that the quintessence is coupled with a generic fluid. It also assumes a theory of gravity with two geometries. The gravitational geometry describes the curvature of space-time while the physical geometry describes the propagation of matter fields. The conformal transformation, which relates the gravitational metric and the physical metric, is extended here to a disformal transformation. In this thesis, the disformally coupled quintessence model mimics the expansion history of the Concordance model, in order to reproduce its observational success and yet have additional degrees of freedom to attempt to address those two issues. Using this approach, the quintessential potential is not specified. The dynamical system for our model is analysed using phase portraits for various studied scenarios. We investigate the expansion history of the DCQ model, where the quintessence couples disformally with dark matter (Scenario I). Our investigation confirms that the quintessential mass influences the disformal characteristics of the dynamical system. Furthermore, the evolution of the density perturbations for the disformally coupled dark matter is reviewed. A disformal effect due to the quintessential mass is seen in the growth rate of the cosmological structures on large scales. The disformal parameter renders no appreciable effect on the evolution of total matter perturbation. A Bayesian analysis of the relevant parameters for the perturbative model (i.e., conformal parameter and quintessential mass) is then carried out using the Redshift Space Distortion data to constrain the best-fit parameters, which might elucidate the σ8 tension. The best fit set of parameters indicates that the data prefers the model to behave conformally.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37131
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:36.207Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2023
publishDateRange 2023
publishDateSort 2023
publisher Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
publisherStr Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/37131 A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background Dusoye, Avishek Dunsby, Peter Klaus de la Cruz-Dombriz, Alvaro Dunsby, P K S Nunes, N J Mathematics and Applied Mathematics Although the currently-accepted Concordance model of the Universe has been very successful observationally, it cannot resolve two main issues. Firstly, it cannot untangle the unknown nature of the cosmological constant in the Einstein Field Equations, which is responsible for the accelerated cosmological expansion. Secondly, it cannot explain the σ8 tension, which occurs because the constraints upon galactic clustering by the Cosmic Microwave Background Planck experiments diverge from the large-scale measurement by the Dark Energy Survey. As an alternative to the cosmological constant, this thesis will be using a scalar field, namely the quintessence. Our studied cosmological model assumes that the quintessence is coupled with a generic fluid. It also assumes a theory of gravity with two geometries. The gravitational geometry describes the curvature of space-time while the physical geometry describes the propagation of matter fields. The conformal transformation, which relates the gravitational metric and the physical metric, is extended here to a disformal transformation. In this thesis, the disformally coupled quintessence model mimics the expansion history of the Concordance model, in order to reproduce its observational success and yet have additional degrees of freedom to attempt to address those two issues. Using this approach, the quintessential potential is not specified. The dynamical system for our model is analysed using phase portraits for various studied scenarios. We investigate the expansion history of the DCQ model, where the quintessence couples disformally with dark matter (Scenario I). Our investigation confirms that the quintessential mass influences the disformal characteristics of the dynamical system. Furthermore, the evolution of the density perturbations for the disformally coupled dark matter is reviewed. A disformal effect due to the quintessential mass is seen in the growth rate of the cosmological structures on large scales. The disformal parameter renders no appreciable effect on the evolution of total matter perturbation. A Bayesian analysis of the relevant parameters for the perturbative model (i.e., conformal parameter and quintessential mass) is then carried out using the Redshift Space Distortion data to constrain the best-fit parameters, which might elucidate the σ8 tension. The best fit set of parameters indicates that the data prefers the model to behave conformally. 2023-03-02T09:23:51Z 2023-03-02T09:23:51Z 2022 2023-02-20T12:43:03Z Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37131 eng application/pdf Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics Faculty of Science
spellingShingle Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
Dusoye, Avishek
A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
title_full A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
title_fullStr A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
title_full_unstemmed A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
title_short A disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the ΛCDM background
title_sort disformally coupled quintessence mimicking the λcdm background
topic Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/37131
work_keys_str_mv AT dusoyeavishek adisformallycoupledquintessencemimickingthelcdmbackground
AT dusoyeavishek disformallycoupledquintessencemimickingthelcdmbackground