Arguably one can use a canonical scalar field φ, minimally coupled to gravity, with quadratic potentials V = Λ±1/2 m^2φ^2 to explore some general features of slow-roll and hilltop thawing quintessence, respectively. For each of these two potentials, and pressure-free matter, we introduce a regular unconstrained dynamical system on a compact state space, where the formulation for the hilltop case is new. Together with a derivation of monotonic functions in the two global state space settings, this enables us to obtain global results and to introduce figures that illustrate the global solution spaces of these models, in which we situate the observationally viable quintessence solutions.

Recent observations suggest that the accelerated expansion of the Universe at late times is caused by a temporally changing dark energy component, rather than the constant one in the standard ΛCDM scenario. In this context quintessence, i.e. a canonical scalar field minimally coupled to gravity, plays a prominent role. There are, however, three main types of quintessence models: thawing quintessence, scaling freezing quintessence, and tracking quintessence. Dynamical systems reformulations of the field equations for a broad set of scalar field potentials, including some new ones, allow us to use dynamical systems methods to derive global and asymptotic features, visualised in bounded state space pictures clearly illustrating the relationships and properties of the different types of quintessence, clarifying initial data issues, and yielding simple and accurate approximations.

We derive new approximations for quintessence solutions that are simpler and an order of magnitude more accurate than anything available in the literature, which from an observational perspective makes numerical calculations superfluous. For example, our tracking quintessence approximation yields similar to 0.1% maximum relative errors of H(Z)/H0 and S2m(Z) for the observationally viable inverse power law scalar field potentials, and similarly for viable thawing quintessence models using two slow-roll parameters. The approximations are trivially computed from the scalar field potential and as an application we give analytic expressions for the Chevallier-Polarski-Linder parameters calculated from an arbitrary scalar field potential for thawing and tracking quintessence models.

Tracking quintessence, in a spatially flat and isotropic space-time with a minimally coupled canonical scalar field and an asymptotically inverse power-law potential $V(\varphi)\propto\varphi^{-p}$, $p>0$, as $\varphi\rightarrow0$, is investigated. This is done by introducing a new three-dimensional \emph{regular} dynamical system, which enables a rigorous explanation of the tracking feature: 1) The dynamical system has a tracker fixed point $\mathrm{T}$ with a two-dimensional stable manifold that pushes an open set of nearby solutions toward a single tracker solution originating from $\mathrm{T}$. 2) All solutions, including the tracker solution and the solutions that track/shadow it, end at a common future attractor fixed point that depends on the potential. Thus, the open set of solutions that shadow the tracker solution share its properties during the tracking quintessence epoch. We also discuss similarities and differences of underlying mechanisms for tracking, thawing and scaling freezing quintessence, and, moreover, we illustrate with state space pictures that all of these types of quintessence exist simultaneously for certain potentials.

The Bianchi type VI_-1/9, VIII and IX vacuum models all have 4-dimensional Hubble-normalized state spaces and are expected to have a generic initial oscillatory singularity, but the invariant boundary sets responsible for the oscillations are much more complicated for type VI_-1/9 than those of type VIII and IX. For the first time, we explicitly solve the equations on these type VI_-1/9 boundary sets and also introduce a new graph representation of the associated network of heteroclinic chains (i.e. sequences of solutions describing the oscillations). In particular, we give examples of networks of entangled cyclic heteroclinic chains and show that only some of these cyclic heteroclinic chains are asymptotically relevant.

The equations for quintessential $α$-attractor inflation with a single scalar field, radiation and matter in a spatially flat FLRW spacetime are recast into a regular dynamical system on a compact state space. This enables a complete description of the solution space of these models. The inflationary attractor solution is shown to correspond to the unstable center manifold of a de Sitter fixed point, and we describe connections between slow-roll and dynamical systems approximations for this solution, including Padé approximants. We also introduce a new method for systematically obtaining initial data for quintessence evolution by using dynamical systems properties; in particular, this method exploits that there exists a radiation dominated line of fixed points with an unstable quintessence attractor submanifold, which plays a role that is reminiscent of that of the inflationary attractor solution for inflation.

We use dynamical systems methods to study quintessence models in a spatially flat and isotropic spacetime with matter and a scalar field with potentials for which λ(φ)=−V,φ/V is bounded, thereby going beyond the exponential potential for which λ(φ) is constant. The scalar field equation of state parameter wφ plays a central role when comparing quintessence models with observations, but with the dynamical systems used to date wφ is an indeterminate, discontinuous, function on the state space in the asymptotically matter dominated regime. Our first main result is the introduction of new variables that lead to a regular dynamical system on a bounded three-dimensional state space on which wφ is a regular function. The solution trajectories in the state space then provide a visualization of different types of quintessence evolution, and how initial conditions affect the transition between the matter and scalar field dominated epochs; this is complemented by graphs wφ(N), where N is the e-fold time, which enables characterizing different types of quintessence evolution.

We consider a dynamical systems formulation for models with an exponential scalar field and matter with a linear equation of state in a spatially flat and isotropic spacetime. In contrast to earlier work, which only considered linear hyperbolic fixed point analysis, we do a center manifold analysis of the non-hyperbolic fixed points associated with bifurcations. More importantly though, we construct monotonic functions and a Dulac function. Together with the complete local fixed point analysis this leads to proofs that describe the entire global dynamics of these models, thereby complementing previous local results in the literature.

The nature of generic spacelike singularities in general relativity is connected with first principles, notably Lorentzian causal structure, scale invariance and general covariance. To bring a new perspective on how these principles affect generic spacelike singularities, we consider the initial singularity in spatially homogeneous Bianchi type VIII and IX vacuum models in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, where relativistic first principles are replaced with anisotropic scalings of Lifshitz type. Within this class of models, General Relativity is shown to be a bifurcation where chaos becomes generic. To describe the chaotic features of generic singularities in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz cosmology, we introduce symbolic dynamics within Cantor sets and iterated function systems.

We derive a newregulardynamical system on a three-dimensionalcompactstate space describing linear scalar perturbations of spatially flat Robertson-Walker geometries for relativistic models with a minimally coupled scalar field with an exponential potential. This enables us to construct the global solution space, illustrated with figures, where known solutions are shown to reside on special invariant sets. We also use our dynamical systems approach to obtain new results about the comoving and uniform density curvature perturbations. Finally we show how to extend our approach to more general scalar field potentials. This leads to state spaces where the state space of the models with an exponential potential appears as invariant boundary sets, thereby illustrating their role as building blocks in a hierarchy of increasingly complex cosmological models.

In this paper we consider second order perturbations of a flat Friedmann-Lemaître universe whose stress-energy content is a single minimally coupled scalar field with an arbitrary potential. We derive the general solution of the perturbed Einstein equations in explicit form for this class of models when the perturbations are in the super-horizon regime. As a by-product we obtain a new conserved quantity for long wavelength perturbations of a single scalar field at second order.

The observational success and simplicity of the ACDM model, and the explicit analytic perturbations thereof, set the standard for any alternative cosmology. It therefore serves as a comparison ground and as a test case for methods which can be extended and applied to other cosmological models. In this paper we introduce dynamical systems and methods to describe linear scalar and tensor perturbations of the ACDM model, which serve as pedagogical examples that show the global illustrative powers of dynamical systems in the context of cosmological perturbations. We also study the asymptotic properties of the shear and Weyl tensors and discuss the validity of the perturbations as approximations to the Einstein field equations. Furthermore, we give a new approximation for the linear growth 5 rate, f (z) = d ln delta/d ln a = Omega(6/11)(m) - 1/70(1-Omega(m))(5/2), where z is the cosmological redshift, Omega(m) = Omega(m)(z), while a is the background scale factor, and show that it is much more accurate than the previous ones in the literature.

In this paper we present a new formulation of the change of gauge formulas in second order cosmological perturbation theory which unifies and simplifies known results. Our approach is based on defining new second order scalar perturbation variables by adding a multiple of the square of the corresponding first order variables to each second order variable. A bonus is that these new perturbation variables are of broader significance in that they also simplify the analysis of second order scalar perturbations in the super-horizon regime in a number of ways, and lead to new conserved quantities.

The study of long-wavelength scalar perturbations, in particular the existence of conserved quantities when the perturbations are adiabatic, plays an important role in e.g., inflationary cosmology. In this paper we present some new conserved quantities at second order and relate them to the curvature perturbation in the uniform density gauge, zeta, and the comoving curvature perturbation, R. We also, for the first time, derive the general solution of the perturbed Einstein equations at second order, which thereby contains both growing and decaying modes, for adiabatic long-wavelength perturbations for a stress-energy tensor with zero anisotropic stresses and zero heat flux. The derivation uses the total matter gauge, but results are subsequently translated to the uniform curvature and Poisson (longitudinal, zero shear) gauges.

In this paper we present a new formulation of the change of gauge formulas at second order in cosmological perturbation theory which unifies, simplifies and extends previous seemingly disparate results concerning change of gauge. Our approach is based on defining new second order perturbation variables by adding a multiple of the square of the corresponding first order variable to each second order variable. A bonus is that these new perturbation variables are of broader significance in that they also simplify the analysis of second order perturbations in the super-horizon regime in a number of ways, and lead to new conserved quantities.

In this paper we give five gauge-invariant systems of governing equations for first and second order scalar perturbations of flat Friedmann-Lemaitre universes that are minimal in the sense that they contain no redundant equations or variables. We normalize the variables so that they are dimensionless, which leads to systems of equations that are simple and ready-to-use. We compare the properties and utility of the different systems. For example, they serve as a starting point for finding explicit solutions for two benchmark problems in cosmological perturbation theory at second order: adiabatic perturbations in the superhorizon regime (the long wavelength limit) and perturbations of ACDM universes. However, our framework has much wider applicability and serves as a reference for future work in the field.

We study flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker alpha-attractor E- and T-models by introducing a dynamical systems framework that yields regularized unconstrained field equations on two-dimensional compact state spaces. This results in both illustrative figures and a complete description of the entire solution spaces of these models, including asymptotics. In particular, it is shown that observational viability, which requires a sufficient number of e-folds, is associated with a particular solution given by a one-dimensional center manifold of a past asymptotic de Sitter state, where the center manifold structure also explains why nearby solutions are attracted to this "inflationary attractor solution." A center manifold expansion yields a description of the inflationary regime with arbitrary analytic accuracy, where the slow-roll approximation asymptotically describes the tangency condition of the center manifold at the asymptotic de Sitter state.

We discuss dynamical systems approaches and methods applied to flat Robertson-Walker models in f(R)-gravity. We argue that a complete description of the solution space of a model requires a global state space analysis that motivates globally covering state space adapted variables. This is shown explicitly by an illustrative example, f(R) = R + α R^2, α > 0, for which we introduce new regular dynamical systems on global compactly extended state spaces for the Jordan and Einstein frames. This example also allows us to illustrate several local and global dynamical systems techniques involving, e.g., blow ups of nilpotent fixed points, center manifold analysis, averaging, and use of monotone functions. As a result of applying dynamical systems methods to globally state space adapted dynamical systems formulations, we obtain pictures of the entire solution spaces in both the Jordan and the Einstein frames. This shows, e.g., that due to the domain of the conformal transformation between the Jordan and Einstein frames, not all the solutions in the Jordan frame are completely contained in the Einstein frame. We also make comparisons with previous dynamical systems approaches to f(R) cosmology and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

We consider the familiar problem of a minimally coupled scalar field with quadratic potential in flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker cosmology to illustrate a number of techniques and tools, which can be applied to a wide range of scalar field potentials and problems in, e.g., modified gravity. We present a global and regular dynamical systems description that yields a global understanding of the solution space, including asymptotic features. We introduce dynamical systems techniques such as center manifold expansions and use Padé approximants to obtain improved approximations for the “attractor solution” at early times. We also show that future asymptotic behavior is associated with a limit cycle, which shows that manifest self-similarity is asymptotically broken toward the future and gives approximate expressions for this behavior. We then combine these results to obtain global approximations for the attractor solution, which, e.g., might be used in the context of global measures. In addition, we elucidate the connection between slow-roll based approximations and the attractor solution, and compare these approximations with the center manifold based approximants.

We consider a minimally coupled scalar field with a monomial potential and a perfect fluid in flat Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker cosmology. We apply local and global dynamical systems techniques to a new three-dimensional dynamical systems reformulation of the field equations on a compact state space. This leads to a visual global description of the solution space and asymptotic behavior. At late times we employ averaging techniques to prove statements about how the relationship between the equation of state of the fluid and the monomial exponent of the scalar field affects asymptotic source dominance and asymptotic manifest self-similarity breaking. We also situate the 'attractor' solution in the three-dimensional state space and show that it corresponds to the one-dimensional unstable center manifold of a de Sitter fixed point, located on an unphysical boundary associated with the dynamics at early times. By deriving a center manifold expansion we obtain approximate expressions for the attractor solution. We subsequently improve the accuracy and range of the approximation by means of Padé approximants and compare with the slow-roll approximation.