Non-singular cosmological scenarios in scalar-tensor theories and their stability: a review

TL;DR

This review discusses non-singular early Universe models within scalar-tensor theories, focusing on their stability, challenges like the no-go theorem, and methods to achieve stable cosmological bounce and Genesis scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of stability issues and recent approaches to construct healthy, non-singular cosmological models in Horndeski and generalized scalar-tensor theories.

Findings

Analysis of the no-go theorem in Horndeski theories

Methods to evade stability constraints in non-singular models

Impact of matter coupling and disformal transformations on stability

Abstract

This article gives a concise overview of the development and current status of studies on healthy models of the early Universe without an initial singularity, namely the cosmological bounce and Genesis scenarios, constructed within a broad class of scalar-tensor theories, specifically Horndeski theories and their generalizations. The review focuses on the topics related to linear stability at the perturbation level over the non-singular background solutions: 1) the no-go theorem, valid for non-singular cosmologies within Horndeski theory, 2) the updates on possible approaches to evade the no-go theorem, 3) the role of disformal transformations relating the Horndeski subclasses with the generalized theories like DHOST, 4) the effects on stability caused by additional matter coupling and potential emergence of superluminal perturbation modes in the multi-component setting.