Proof of the Cosmic No-Hair Conjecture for Quadratic Homogeneous Cosmologies

TL;DR

This paper proves the cosmic no-hair conjecture for quadratic homogeneous cosmologies within the $R+eta R^2$ gravity framework, showing that certain Bianchi universes tend to de Sitter space under specific initial conditions.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous proof of the cosmic no-hair conjecture for Bianchi cosmologies in quadratic gravity theories using conformal transformations and differential inequalities.

Findings

Bianchi IX universe approaches de Sitter space asymptotically

The proof applies to models with matter fields in $R+eta R^2$ gravity

Conditions on initial scalar curvature determine asymptotic behavior

Abstract

We prove the cosmic no-hair conjecture for all orthogonal Bianchi cosmologies with matter in the $R+\beta R^2$ theory using the conformally equivalent Einstein field equations, with the scalar field having the full self-interacting potential, in the presence of the conformally related matter fields. We show, in particular, that the Bianchi IX universe asymptotically approaches de Sitter space provided that initially the scalar three-curvature does not exceed the potential of the scalar field associated with the conformal transformation. Our proof relies on rigorous estimates of the possible bounds of the so-called Moss-Sahni function which obeys certain differential inequalities and a non-trivial argument which connects the behaviour of that function to evolution of the spatial part of the scalar curvature.