A new approach in classical Klein-Gordon cosmology: "Small Bangs", inflation and Dark Energy

Abstract: In this work, we analyze the cosmological model in which the expansion is driven by a classical, free Klein-Gordon field on a flat, four-dimensional Friedmann-Lema^itre-Robertson-Walker spacetime. The model allows for arbitrary mass, non-zero cosmological constant and coupling to curvature. We find that there are strong restrictions to the parameter space, due to the requirement for the reality of the field values. At early cosmological times, we observe Big Bang singularities, solutions where the scale factor asymptotically approaches zero, and Small Bangs. The latter are solutions for which the Hubble parameter diverges at a finite value of the scale factor. They appear generically in our model for certain curvature couplings. An early inflationary era is observed for a specific value of the curvature coupling without further assumptions (unlike in many other inflationary models). A late-time Dark Energy period is present for all solutions with positive cosmological constant, numerically suggesting that a "cosmic no-hair" theorem holds under more general assumptions than the original Wald version which relies on classical energy conditions. The classical fields in consideration can be viewed as resembling one-point functions of a semiclassical model, in which the cosmological expansion is driven by a quantum field.