ΛCDM periodic cosmology

Abstract

ABSTRACT We examine the possibility that Universe expansion be made of some Λ-cold dark matter (ΛCDM) expansions repeating periodically, separated by some inflation- and radiation-dominated phases. This so-called ΛCDM periodic cosmology is motivated by the possibility that inflation and the present phase of accelerated expansion be due to the same dark energy. Then, in a phase space showing the variation of matter density parameter Ωm with respect to this of the radiation Ωr, the curve Ωm(Ωr) looks like a closed trajectory that Universe could run through forever. In this case, the end of the expansion acceleration of the ΛCDM phase is the beginning of a new inflation phase. We show that such a scenario implies the coupling of matter and/or radiation to dark energy. We consider the simplest of these ΛCDM periodic models i.e. a vacuum energy coupled to radiation. From matter domination phase to today, it behaves like a ΛCDM model, then followed by an inflation phase. But a sudden and fast decay of the dark energy into radiation periodically ends the expansion acceleration. This leads to a radiation-dominated Universe preceding a new ΛCDM type expansion. The model is constrained with Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations using supernovae, Hubble expansion, Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), and cosmic microwave background data and fits the data as well as the ΛCDM one.