Multi-body spherically symmetric steady states of Newtonian self-gravitating elastic matter

We study the problem of static, spherically symmetric, self-gravitating elastic matter distributions in Newtonian gravity. To this purpose we first introduce a new definition of homogeneous, spherically symmetric (hyper)elastic body in Euler coordinates, i.e., in terms of matter fields defined on the current physical state of the body. We show that our definition is equivalent to the classical one existing in the literature and which is given in Lagrangian coordinates, i.e., in terms of the deformation of the body from a given reference state. After a number of well-known examples of constitutive functions of elastic bodies are re-defined in our new formulation, a detailed study of the Seth model is presented. For this type of material the existence of single and multi-body solutions is established.Comment: 33 pages, 1 figure. v2 matches final published versio

On dynamical systems approaches and methods in f(R)f(R) cosmology

We discuss dynamical systems approaches and methods applied to flat Robertson-Walker models in $f(R)$-gravity. We argue that a complete description of the solution space of a model requires a global state space analysis that motivates globally covering state space adapted variables. This is shown explicitly by an illustrative example, $f(R) = R + \alpha R^2$, $\alpha > 0$, for which we introduce new regular dynamical systems on global compactly extended state spaces for the Jordan and Einstein frames. This example also allows us to illustrate several local and global dynamical systems techniques involving, e.g., blow ups of nilpotent fixed points, center manifold analysis, averaging, and use of monotone functions. As a result of applying dynamical systems methods to globally state space adapted dynamical systems formulations, we obtain pictures of the entire solution spaces in both the Jordan and the Einstein frames. This shows, e.g., that due to the domain of the conformal transformation between the Jordan and Einstein frames, not all the solutions in the Jordan frame are completely contained in the Einstein frame. We also make comparisons with previous dynamical systems approaches to $f(R)$ cosmology and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.Comment: 36 pages, 7 figures. v2: references added, matches published versio

Static self-gravitating Newtonian elastic balls

The existence of static self-gravitating Newtonian elastic balls is proved under general assumptions on the constitutive equations of the elastic material. The proof uses methods from the theory of finite-dimensional dynamical systems and the Euler formulation of elasticity theory for spherically symmetric bodies introduced recently by the authors. Examples of elastic materials covered by the results of this paper are Saint Venant-Kirchhoff, John and Hadamard materials.Comment: 30 pages, 2 figures. The order of presentation of the results and the notation have been changed considerably to improve the reading flow of the article. Some assumptions and theorems have been reformulated in a more clear way and several new remarks have been adde

Quintessential α\alpha-attractor inflation: A dynamical systems analysis

The equations for quintessential $\alpha$-attractor inflation with a single scalar field, radiation and matter in a spatially flat FLRW spacetime are recast into a regular dynamical system on a compact state space. This enables a complete description of the solution space of these models. The inflationary attractor solution is shown to correspond to the unstable center manifold of a de Sitter fixed point, and we describe connections between slow-roll and dynamical systems approximations for this solution, including Pad\'e approximants. We also introduce a new method for systematically obtaining initial data for quintessence evolution by using dynamical systems properties; in particular, this method exploits that there exists a radiation dominated line of fixed points with an unstable quintessence attractor submanifold, which plays a role that is reminiscent of that of the inflationary attractor solution for inflation.Comment: 34 pages, 23 figure

Spherical linear waves in de Sitter spacetime

We apply Christodoulou's framework, developed to study the Einstein-scalar field equations in spherical symmetry, to the linear wave equation in de Sitter spacetime, as a first step towards the Einstein-scalar field equations with positive cosmological constant. We obtain an integro-differential evolution equation which we solve by taking initial data on a null cone. As a corollary we obtain elementary derivations of expected properties of linear waves in de Sitter spacetime: boundedness in terms of (characteristic) initial data, and a Price law establishing uniform exponential decay, in Bondi time, to a constant.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; v2: minor changes, references added, matches final published versio

The Einstein-Friedrich-nonlinear scalar field system and the stability of scalar field Cosmologies

A frame representation is used to derive a first order quasi-linear symmetric hyperbolic system for a scalar field minimally coupled to gravity. This procedure is inspired by similar evolution equations introduced by Friedrich to study the Einstein-Euler system. The resulting evolution system is used to show that small nonlinear perturbations of expanding Friedman-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker backgrounds, with scalar field potentials satisfying certain future asymptotic conditions, decay exponentially to zero, in synchronous time.Comment: Version 4: Matches final published versio