Phantom Friedmann cosmologies and higher-order characteristics of expansion (Q2368891): Difference between revisions

In conventional inflationary cosmology, the history of the universe begins with the hot big bang during which large-scale structures form, and afterwards expands forever during a period of slow accelerated expansion [\textit{A. Albrecht} and \textit{P. J. Steinhardt}, ``Cosmology for grand unified theories with relatively induced symmetry breaking'', Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1220--1223 (1982)]. The effort to explain a spatially flat, low matter density universe which is currently undergoing an inflationary period of accelerating expansion has focused attention on cosmological models in which the dominant component of the cosmic energy density has negative pressure with an equation of state \(w \geq - 1\). Remarking that most observations are consistent with cosmological models right up to the \(w = - 1\) or cosmological constant \(\Lambda\) limit, it is natural to ask what lies on the other side at the equation of state \(w < - 1\) [\textit{R. R. Caldwell}, ``A phantom menace? Cosmological consequences of a dark energy component with super-negative equation of state'', Phys. Lett. B 545, 23--29 (2002)]. In this line of question, phantom cosmologies represent a new type of cosmological fluid models of a very strong negative pressure which admit a negative barotropic index \(w < - 1\). They provide a viable completion of standard cosmologies because the phantom energy component is found to be compatible with most classical tests of cosmology including the cosmic microwave background anisotropy and mass power spectrum. They are included into the basic system of equations for isotropic and homogeneous Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological models expressed in terms of the scale factor, the curvature index, cosmological constant \(\Lambda\), and the Einstein constant [\textit{S. Weinberg}, Gravitation and Cosmology. Wiley, New York (1972); \textit{S. W. Hawking} and \textit{G. F. R. Ellis}, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1973; Zbl 0265.53054)]. The paper under review deals with a general class of phantom cosmological models with various forms of both phantom (\(w < - 1\)) and standard matter (\(w > - 1\)). The approach includes both standard big-bang as well as phantom-driven big-rip singularities. Taking into account the observational data currently available from supernovae spectra, large-scale structure, and cosmic microwave background anisotropy, the most interesting evolution models are those which start with a big-bang and terminate at a big-rip. There exists an unstable static universe between. The paper provides relations between the density parameters and the dynamical characteristics for these phantom cosmological models. In addition, it provides a careful classification of the phantom Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmological models which lead to a cubic and quartic polynomial in their canonical equation. The branches of the solutions are expressed in terms of \(\wp\)-related elliptic functions and \(\tanh\)-related hyperbolic trigonometric functions, respectively.