Generalized scalar field cosmologies

Abstract: In this paper, we use both local and global phase-space descriptions and averaging methods to find qualitative features of solutions for the FLRW and Bianchi I metrics in the context of scalar field cosmologies with arbitrary potentials and arbitrary couplings to matter. We prove new theorems and also retrieve previous results that can be seen as corollaries of the present results. We study the stability of the equilibrium points in a phase-space, as well as the dynamics in the regime where the scalar field diverges. We obtain equilibrium points that represent some solutions of cosmological interest, such as several types of scaling solutions, a kinetic dominated solution representing a stiff fluid, a solution dominated by an effective energy density of geometric origin, a quintessence scalar field dominated solution, the vacuum de Sitter solution associated to the minimum of the potential, and a non-interacting matter dominated solution. All reveal a very rich cosmological phenomenology. Finally, we present some examples that violate one or more hypotheses of the Theorems proved, obtaining some counterexamples. In particular, we incorporate small cosine-like corrections motivated by inflationary loop-quantum cosmology, and we study the oscillatory behavior.