Revisitation of chaos in Bianchi IX Universe and in generalized scalar--tensor cosmologies. (Q1419286)

The equations of general relativity (GR) lead to singularities like infinite spatio-temporal curvature or of components of the Ricci tensor, geodesic stopping and so on... when we look at the equations backwards towards the origin of time. In this paper, the authors focus on a temporal singularity of the solutions of the Einstein equations for the mixmaster model (Bianchi\(_{\,\text{IX}}\) Universe) describing an anisotropic and homogeneous cosmology. The authors revisit the problem of the origin and of the nature of chaos in this model and extend the study when a scalar-tensor field is included. The authors look at the Universe as a dynamical system and make use of tools of the theory of such systems in order to analyze its behavior. Earlier, it has been conjectured that the approach to singularity has a chaotic behavior but the difficulty lies in the fact that this regime is only asymptotic in time. In this system, the Universe is described by the evolution of its three spatial directions that are coupled by a potential of curvature anisotropy. One has thus a dynamical system with three degrees of freedom that is described by three ordinary coupled differential equations. The challenge is to determine whether the approach to the singularity is indeed chaotic or not by numerical analytical/numerical means. A large amount of work is done on this paradigm chaotic system. The authors rewrite the relevant equations starting from a Lagrangian (\(L\)) description of GR applied to an anisotropic Universe in vacuum or in an universe filled with ordinary matter. The associated Hamiltonian (\(H\)) within the ADM formalism is obtained. The scalar-tensor field is introduced and the corresponding \(L\) and \(H\) expressions are given in both the Jordan-Brans-Dicke and in two different Einstein frames using a conformal transformation to relate these frames. The applications to Bianchi\(_{\,\text{IX}}\) and Bianchi\(_{\,\text{I}}\) metrics are made. In the case of the mixmaster model, the chaos occurs precisely at the prescribed necessary value \(H^{\text{vac}} =0\) of the GR for the energy of the Universe while the system is found regular for \(H^{\text{vac}}>0\) and chaotic for \(H^{\text{vac}}<0\) with respect to its pure vacuum part. In the case of generalized scalar tensor theories within the Bianchi\(_{\,\text{IX}}\) model, using the ADM formalism and a conformal transformation, it is shown that the energy of the dynamical system as compared to vacuum lies below the threshold, thus the system is not exhibiting chaos and the conclusion still holds in the presence of ordinary matter as well. The suppression of chaos occurs in a similar way for stiff matter alone. Numerical simulations are made to support the authors' conclusions including the cases when both scalar-tensor field and ordinary matter are involved.