Early-time cosmological solutions in scalar-Gauss-Bonnet theory

Abstract

We consider a gravitational theory that contains the Einstein term, a scalar field and the quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term. We focus on the early-universe dynamics, and demonstrate that the Ricci scalar does not affect the cosmological solutions at early times, when the curvature is strong. We then consider a pure scalar-GB theory with a quadratic coupling function: for a negative coupling parameter, we obtain solutions that contain always an inflationary, de Sitter phase, while for a positive coupling function, we find instead expanding singularity-free solutions.

Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the Fourteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting - MG14 (Early Universe session - EU3), Rome, July 12-18, 2015