Statefinder diagnostic and constraints on the Palatini f(R) gravity theories

TL;DR

This paper investigates Palatini f(R) gravity models for late-time cosmic acceleration, using statefinder diagnostics and observational data to distinguish models and analyze their evolutionary trajectories.

Contribution

It applies statefinder diagnostics and observational constraints to specific Palatini f(R) models, highlighting their distinct evolutionary behaviors and viability in explaining cosmic acceleration.

Findings

Different f(R) models show unique trajectories in the r-s and r-q planes.

Most models are consistent with ΛCDM within 1σ confidence, except for specific parameter choices.

All models can produce late-time acceleration and approach de-Sitter space in the future.

Abstract

We focus on a series of $f(R)$ gravity theories in Palatini formalism to investigate the probabilities of producing the late-time acceleration for the flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe. We apply statefinder diagnostic to these cosmological models for chosen series of parameters to see if they distinguish from one another. The diagnostic involves the statefinder pair $\{r,s\}$, where $r$ is derived from the scale factor $a$ and its higher derivatives with respect to the cosmic time $t$, and $s$ is expressed by $r$ and the deceleration parameter $q$. In conclusion, we find that although two types of $f(R)$ theories: (i) $f(R) = R + \alpha R^m - \beta R^{-n}$ and (ii) $f(R) = R + \alpha \ln R - \beta$ can lead to late-time acceleration, their evolutionary trajectories in the $r-s$ and $r-q$ planes reveal different evolutionary properties, which certainly justify the merits of statefinder diagnostic. Additionally, we utilize the observational Hubble parameter data (OHD) to constrain these models of $f(R)$ gravity. As a result, except for $m=n=1/2$ of (i) case, $\alpha=0$ of (i) case and (ii) case allow $\Lambda$CDM model to exist in 1$\sigma$ confidence region. After adopting statefinder diagnostic to the best-fit models, we find that all the best-fit models are capable of going through deceleration/acceleration transition stage with late-time acceleration epoch, and all these models turn to de-Sitter point ($\{r,s\}=\{1,0\}$) in the future. Also, the evolutionary differences between these models are distinct, especially in $r-s$ plane, which makes the statefinder diagnostic more reliable in discriminating cosmological models.