Teleparallel scalar-tensor gravity through cosmological dynamical systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how scalar-tensor theories within teleparallel gravity can model the Universe's evolution, analyzing their dynamical systems to identify key critical points and behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of scalar-tensor theories in teleparallel gravity focusing on the kinetic term's impact using dynamical systems methods.

Findings

Identification of critical points in the dynamical systems

Analysis of the stability and evolution of cosmological models

Insights into the role of the scalar field's kinetic term

Abstract

Scalar-tensor theories offer the prospect of explaining the cosmological evolution of the Universe through an effective description of dark energy as a quantity with a non-trivial evolution. In this work, we investigate this feature of scalar-tensor theories in the teleparallel gravity context. Teleparallel gravity is a novel description of geometric gravity as a torsional-rather than curvature-based quantity which presents a new foundational base for gravity. Our investigation is centered on the impact of a nontrivial input from the kinetic term of the scalar field. We consider a number of model settings in the context of the dynamical system to reveal their evolutionary behavior. We determine the critical points of these systems and discuss their dynamics.