Observational Constraints on Undulant Cosmologies

Abstract

In an undulant universe, cosmic expansion is characterized by alternating periods of acceleration and deceleration. We examine cosmologies in which the dark-energy equation of state varies periodically with the number of e-foldings of the scale factor of the universe, and use observations to constrain the frequency of oscillation. We find a tension between a forceful response to the cosmic coincidence problem and the standard treatment of structure formation.

Comments: 19 pages, 12 figures in 19 files, uses iopart.cls, iopart10.clo; added references