Dark Energy: A Unifying View

Different models of the cosmic substratum which pretend to describe the present stage of accelerated expansion of the Universe like the $\Lambda$CDM model or a Chaplygin gas, can be seen as special realizations of a holographic dark energy cosmology if the option of an interaction between pressurless dark matter and dark energy is taken seriously. The corresponding interaction strength parameter plays the role of a cosmological constant. Differences occur at the perturbative level. In particular, the pressure perturbations are intrinsically non-adiabatic.Comment: 9 pages, selected for "Honorable Mention" by the Gravity Research Foundatio

Cosmic Evolution and Primordial Black Hole Evaporation

A cosmological model in which primordial black holes (PBHs) are present in the cosmic fluid at some instant t=t_0 is investigated. The time t_0 is naturally identified with the end of the inflationary period. The PBHs are assumed to be nonrelativistic in the comoving fluid, to have the same mass, and may be subject to evaporation for t>t_0. Our present work is related to an earlier paper of Zimdahl and Pavon [Phys. Rev. D {\bf 58}, 103506 (1998)], but in contradistinction to these authors we assume that the (negative) production rate of the PBHs is zero. This assumption appears to us to be more simple and more physical. Consequences of the formalism are worked out. In particular, the four-divergence of the entropy four-vector in combination with the second law in thermodynamics show in a clear way how the the case of PBH evaporation corresponds to a production of entropy. Accretion of radiation onto the black holes is neglected. We consider both a model where two different sub-fluids interact, and a model involving one single fluid only. In the latter case an effective bulk viscosity naturally appears in the formalism.Comment: 18 pages, LaTeX, no figures. Extended discussion of the black hole evaporation process. Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Conformal symmetry and deflationary gas universe

We describe the ``deflationary'' evolution from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period as a specific non-equilibrium configuration of a self-interacting gas. The transition dynamics corresponds to a conformal, timelike symmetry of an ``optical'' metric, characterized by a refraction index of the cosmic medium which continously decreases from a very large initial value to unity in the FLRW phase.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in "Exact Solutions and Scalar Fields in Gravity: Recent Developments", ed. by A. Macias, J. Cervantes-Cota, and C. L\"ammerzahl, Kluwer Academic Publishers 200

Cosmological particle production, causal thermodynamics, and inflationary expansion

Combining the equivalence between cosmological particle creation and an effective viscous fluid pressure with the fact that the latter represents a dynamical degree of freedom within the second-order Israel-Stewart theory for imperfect fluids, we reconsider the possibility of accelerated expansion in fluid cosmology. We find an inherent self-limitation for the magnitude of an effective bulk pressure which is due to adiabatic (isentropic) particle production. For a production rate which depends quadratically on the Hubble rate we confirm the existence of solutions which describe a smooth transition from inflationary to noninflationary behavior and discuss their interpretation within the model of a decaying vacuum energy density. An alternative formulation of the effective imperfect fluid dynamics in terms of a minimally coupled scalar field is given. The corresponding potential is discussed and an entropy equivalent for the scalar field is found.Comment: 16 pages, revtex file, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Cosmological thermodynamics and deflationary gas universe

We establish a general thermodynamic scheme for cosmic fluids with internal self-interactions and discuss equilibrium and non-equilibrium aspects of such systems in connection with (generalized) symmetry properties of the cosmological dynamics. As an example we construct an exactly solvable gas dynamical model of a ``deflationary'' transition from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period. We demonstrate that this dynamics represents a manifestation of a conformal symmetry of an ``optical'' metric, characterized by a specific effective refraction index of the cosmic medium.Comment: 12 pages, to appear in PR

Stable Inflationary Dissipative Cosmologies

The stability of the de Sitter era of cosmic expansion in spatially curved homogeneous isotropic universes is studied. The source of the gravitational field is an imperfect fluid such that the parameters that characterize it may change with time. In this way we extend our previous analysis for spatially-flat spaces as well as the work of Barrow.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX 2.09, 1 figure. To be published in International Journal of Modern Physics