Reply to Comment [arXiv:1707.00747] by P. H. R. S. Moraes, R. A. C. Correa and G. Ribeiro on "Cosmological inviability of $f(R,T)$ gravity" [H. Velten and Thiago R. P. Caram\^es, Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) 123536, arXiv:1702.07710]

TL;DR

This paper defends the conclusion that the specific $f(R,T)$ gravity model cannot produce a transition from deceleration to acceleration, clarifying misconceptions and correcting errors in previous comments and equations.

Contribution

The authors reaffirm the cosmological inviability of the $f(R,T)=R+eta T^2$ model and correct inaccuracies in prior critiques and equations.

Findings

The $f(R,T)=R+eta T^2$ model fails to produce cosmic acceleration.

A previously used scale factor evolution equation is incorrect and dimensionally inconsistent.

Typographical errors do not affect the main conclusions.

Abstract

In this Reply we reassert the failure of the model $f(R,T)=R+\alpha T+ \beta T^2$ in providing a transition from deceleration to an accelerated stage as we have pointed out in [H. Velten and Thiago R. P. Caram\^es, Phys. Rev. D 95 (2017) 123536]. We remark that the such a Comment is essentially based on a typo which clearly does not propagate to the rest of the equations and then does not affect our conclusions. Besides, the authors mentioned an equation for the evolution of the scale factor, already previously used in [P.H.R.S. Moraes, G. Ribeiro and R.A.C. Correa, Astrophys. Space Sci. {\bf 361} 227, (2016)], which we have shown to be wrong and dimensionally inconsistent.