Tadpole cosmology: Milne solution as a cosmological constant hideout

Abstract

Abstract Dynamical cancellation frameworks present a potential means of mitigating the effect of a large vacuum energy, that would otherwise ruin the late-time, low energy dynamics of the Universe. Certain models in the literature, such as the Fab Four and Well Tempering, realize this idea by introducing some degeneracy in the dynamical equations. In this paper, we introduce a third potential route to self-tuning, and infer the existence of a new, exact Milne solution in the simplest tadpole plus cubic-Galileon scalar-tensor theory. We study the dynamics of the scalar field and metric in the vicinity of the Milne coordinate singularity, and find that the vacuum solution belongs to a more general family of Milne-like metrics. By numerically evolving the field equations for a range of initial conditions, we show that the Milne solution is not an attractor, and varying the initial scalar field data can lead to completely different asymptotic states; exponential growth of the scale factor, a static non-spatially flat metric or a severe finite-time instability in the scalar field and metric. We generalise the Milne solution to a class of FLRW spacetimes, finding that the tadpole-cubic Galileon model admits perfect-fluid-like solutions in the presence of matter. Finally, we present a second Horndeski model which also admits an exact Milne solution, hinting at the existence of a larger undiscovered model space containing vacuum-energy-screened solutions.