Observational constraints and some toy models in $f(Q)$ gravity with bulk viscous fluid

TL;DR

This paper explores cosmological models within $f(Q)$ gravity incorporating bulk viscous fluids, constraining parameters with observational data, and analyzing energy conditions and equation of state profiles to assess model viability.

Contribution

It introduces three novel bulk viscous fluid models in $f(Q)$ gravity with different functional forms of $f(Q)$ and tests their consistency using observational datasets.

Findings

Models are consistent with observational data.

Energy conditions are satisfied in the proposed models.

Equation of state profiles indicate viable cosmological behavior.

Abstract

The standard formulation of general relativity fails to describe some recent interests in the universe. It impels us to go beyond the standard formulation of gravity. The $f(Q)$ gravity theory is an interesting modified theory of gravity, where the gravitational interaction is driven by the nonmetricity $Q$. This study aims to examine the cosmological models with the presence of bulk viscosity effect in the cosmological fluid within the framework of $f(Q)$ gravity. We construct three bulk viscous fluid models, i.e. (i) for the first model, we assuming the Lagrangian $f(Q)$ as linear dependence on $Q$, (ii) for the second model the Lagrangian $f(Q)$ as a polynomial functional form, and (iii) the Lagrangian $f(Q)$ as a logarithmic dependence on $Q$. Furthermore, we use 57 points of Hubble data and 1048 Pantheon dataset to constraint the model parameters. Then, we discuss all the energy conditions for each model, which helps us to test the self-consistency of our models. Finally, we present the profiles of the equation of state parameters to test the models' present status.