arXiv subjects

Alessandro Casalino

Publications and source records attributed to Alessandro Casalino.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Cosmological Signatures of Curvature-Coupled Dark Energy

We study a curvature-coupled dark energy model that can modify cosmological evolution both before recombination and during the late-time accelerated era. The model belongs to the class of scalar-tensor theories, in which a quintessence field is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar. We specify the model through a shifted quartic coupling, $f(φ)=α(φ^2-φ_{\rm today}^2)^2$, and an inverse power-law potential, $V(φ)=Λφ^{-σ}$, where $φ_{\rm today}$ is a constant fixed by requiring the effective Planck mass to recover its present-day normalization. We implement the model in a modified version of $\mathtt{hi\_class}$ and compute its background and linear cosmological predictions. This specific form of non-minimal coupling allows an effective crossing of the phantom divide at late times while naturally suppressing deviations from standard gravity today and satisfying local gravity constraints. At the same time, the scalar field can modify the expansion history before recombination, shifting the acoustic scale in the direction required to alleviate the $H_0$ tension, while remaining dynamically relevant as dark energy at low redshift. For the parameter choices studied here, we find tens-of-percent deviations from $Λ$CDM in the expansion history, matter clustering, and metric-potential spectra. The modified evolution of the gravitational potentials leaves characteristic signatures in relativistic observables, with weak-lensing power suppressed by $\mathcal{O}(20$-$40\%)$ at low multipoles and order-unity changes in the late Integrated Sachs-Wolfe signal. Together, these results reveal a broad, scale-dependent phenomenology that motivates both a full parameter-space analysis and an extension of the present linear treatment to a dedicated non-linear $N$-body implementation.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Local solutions of General Relativity in the presence of the Trace Anomaly

Local solutions are a vivid and long-living topic in gravitational physics. We consider exact static pseudo-spherically symmetric solutions of semi-classical Einstein's equations in presence of the trace anomaly contribution. We investigate black hole solutions and propose new metrics describing traversable wormholes. Thanks to the trace anomaly, wormholes are realized in the vacuum and, nevertheless, violate the null energy condition.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Perturbations in Regularized Lovelock Gravity

In this paper we study the perturbation theory of the recently proposed Regularized Lovelock Gravity, on the curved FLRW space-time. We provide the first order perturbation equations both in the scalar and tensor sector in the presence of an additional minimally coupled scalar field. A general expression for the velocity of gravitational waves at the generic order is inferred. Moreover, we apply the results on the study of slow-roll inflation on flat FLRW background, at second order in the Regularized Lovelock Gravity, i.e. in the presence of the Gauss-Bonnet correction only. We derive the power spectra of scalar and tensor perturbations, and provide the equations for the inflation observable quantities: the spectral indices and the tensor-to-scalar spectra ratio.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Bounce Models within Teleparallel modified gravity

In this paper, working in a Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW), first, in the flat case, we recover the generalized Friedman equation of Quantum Loop cosmology, and therefore the cosmological bounce, in the framework of modified teleparallel gravity $f(T)$-model, $T$ being the torsion scalar introduced in teleparallel gravity approach, without invoking unconventional exotic matter. Furthermore we study the associated perturbations again in a flat FLRW space-time. Then, we generalize the results to the curved FLRW space-time, where some issues related to the choice of tetrad exist, by using an appropriate formulation. In this context, the results of Born-Infeld model are also investigated.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Regularized Lovelock gravity

A four-dimensional regularization of Lovelock-Lanczos gravity up to an arbitrary curvature order is considered. We show that Lovelock-Lanczos terms can provide a non-trivial contribution to the Einstein field equations in four dimensions, for spherically symmetric and Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetimes, as well as at first order in perturbation theory around (anti) de Sitter vacua. We will discuss the cosmological and black hole solutions arising from these theories, focusing on the presence of attractors and their stability. Although curvature singularities persist for any finite number of Lovelock terms, it is shown that they disappear in the non-perturbative limit of a theory with a unique vacuum.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

A note on non singular Einstein-Aether cosmologies

An effective Lagrangian approach based on an extended Einstein-Aether (EA) model is presented and formulated in a generic non flat Fridman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) space-time. For a flat FLRW space-time, a Friedmann equation similar to the one obtained in Quantum Loop Cosmology (QLC) is reproduced, with related non singular bounce solution. Finally, the Static Spherically Symmetric (SSS) solutions are investigated.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2020

Higher derivative and mimetic models on non flat FLRW space-times

An effective Lagrangian approach, partly inspired by Quantum Loop Cosmology (QLC), is presented and formulated in a non flat FLRW space-times, making use of modified gravitational models. The models considered are non generic, and their choice is dictated by the necessity to have at least second order differential equations of motion in a non flat FLRW space-time. This is accomplished by a class of Lagrangian which are not analytic in the curvature invariants, or making use of a mimetic gravitational scalar field. It is shown that, for some effective models, the associated generalized Friedmann equation, in general, may admit non singular metrics as solutions, while the de Sitter space-time is present only for a restricted class, which includes General Relativity and Lovelock gravity. The other models admit pseudo de Sitter solutions, namely FLRW metrics, such that for vanishing spatial curvature looks like flat de Sitter patch, but for non vanishing spatial curvature are regular bounce metrics or, when the spatial curvature is negative, Big-Bang singular metrics.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2019

Kinematic reconstructions of extended theories of gravity at small and intermediate redshifts

In the last few decades, extensions of General Relativity have reached always more attention especially in view of possible breakdowns of the standard $Λ$CDM paradigm at intermediate and high redshift regimes. If General Relativity would not be the ultimate theory of gravity, modifying Einstein's gravity in the homogeneous and isotropic universe may likely represent a viable path toward the description of current universe acceleration. We here focus our attention on two classes of extended theories, i.e. the $f(R)$ and $f(R,G)$-gravity. We parameterize the so-obtained Hubble function by means of effective barotropic fluids, by calibrating the shapes of our curves through some of the most suitable dark energy parameterizations, XCDM, CPL, WP. Afterwards, by virtue of the correspondence between the Ricci scalar and the Gauss-Bonnet topological invariant with the redshift $z$, we rewrite $f(R,G)$ in terms of corresponding $f(z)$ auxiliary functions. This scheme enables one to get numerical shapes for $f(R,G)$ and $f(R)$ models, through a coarse-grained inverse scattering procedure. Although our procedure agrees with the simplest extensions of general relativity, it leaves open the possibility that the most suitable forms of $f(R)$ and $f(R,G)$ are rational Padé polynomials of first orders. These approximations seem to be compatible with numerical reconstructions within intermediate redshift domains and match fairly well small redshift tests.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Alive and well: mimetic gravity and a higher-order extension in light of GW170817

The near-simultaneous multi-messenger detection of the gravitational wave (GW) event GW170817 and its optical counterpart, the short $γ$-ray burst GRB170817A, implies that deviations of the GW speed from the speed of light are restricted to being of ${\cal O}(10^{-15})$. In this note, we study the implications of this bound for mimetic gravity and confirm that in the original setting of the theory, GWs propagate at the speed of light, hence ensuring agreement with the recent multi-messenger detection. A higher-order extension of the original mimetic theory, appearing in the low-energy limit of projectable Hořava-Lifshitz gravity, is then considered. Performing a Bayesian statistical analysis where we compare the predictions of the higher-order mimetic model for the speed of GWs against the observational bound from GW170817/GRB170817A, we derive constraints on the three free parameters of the theory. Imposing the absence of both ghost instabilities and superluminal propagation of scalar and tensor perturbations, we find very stringent 95\% confidence level upper limits of $\sim 7 \times 10^{-15}$ and $\sim 4 \times 10^{-15}$ on the coupling strengths of Lagrangian terms of the form $\nabla^μ\nabla^νϕ\nabla_μ\nabla_νϕ$ and $(\Box ϕ)^2$ respectively, with $ϕ$ the mimetic field. We discuss implications of the obtained bounds for mimetic theories. This work presents the first ever robust comparison of a mimetic theory to observational data.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Testing Horndeski gravity as dark matter with $\texttt{hi_class}$

We consider a model of dark matter fluid based on a sector of Horndeski gravity. The model is very successful, at the background level, in reproducing the evolution of the Universe from early times to today. However, at the perturbative level the model fails. To show this, we use the code $\texttt{hi_class}$ and we compute the matter power spectrum and the cosmic microwave background spectrum. Our results confirm, in a new and independent way, that this sector of Horndeski gravity is not viable, in agreement with the recent constraints coming from the measurement of the speed of gravitational waves obtained from the observation of the neutron star merger event GW170817.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2018

Mimicking dark matter and dark energy in a mimetic model compatible with GW170817

The recent observation of the the gravitational wave event GW170817 and of its electromagnetic counterpart GRB170817A, from a binary neutron star merger, has established that the speed of gravitational waves deviates from the speed of light by less than one part in $10^{15}$. As a consequence, many extensions of General Relativity are inevitably ruled out. Among these we find the most relevant sectors of Horndeski gravity. In its original formulation, mimetic gravity is able to mimic cosmological dark matter, has tensorial perturbations that travel exactly at the speed of light but has vanishing scalar perturbations and this fact persists if we combine mimetic with Horndeski gravity. In this work, we show that implementing the mimetic gravity action with higher-order terms that break the Horndeski structure yields a cosmological model that satisfies the constraint on the speed of gravitational waves and mimics both dark energy and dark matter with a non-vanishing speed of sound. In this way, we are able to reproduce the $Λ$CDM cosmological model without introducing particle cold dark matter.

gr-qc↗