Stability of Einstein static universe in gravity theory with a non-minimal derivative coupling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the stability of the Einstein static universe within a gravity theory featuring a non-minimal derivative coupling, demonstrating conditions under which the universe can avoid the big bang singularity via the emergent scenario.

Contribution

It provides a stability analysis of the Einstein static universe in a non-minimal kinetic coupling gravity model, showing conditions for avoiding the big bang singularity.

Findings

The Einstein static universe is stable under scalar perturbations.

The Einstein static universe is stable under tensor perturbations.

Stability depends on specific model parameter conditions.

Abstract

The emergent mechanism provides a possible way to resolve the big bang singularity problem by assuming that our universe originates from the Einstein static (ES) state. Thus, the existence of a stable ES solution becomes a very crucial prerequisite for the emergent scenario. In this paper, we study the stability of an ES universe in gravity theory with a non-minimal coupling between the kinetic term of a scalar field and the Einstein tensor. We find that the ES solution is stable under both scalar and tensor perturbations when the model parameters satisfy certain conditions, which indicates that the big bang singularity can be avoided successfully by the emergent mechanism in the non-minimally kinetic coupled gravity.