Late time cosmic acceleration: ABCD of dark energy and modified theories of gravity

Abstract

We briefly review the problems and prospects of the standard lore of dark energy and notice that the cosmological constant problems are often over emphasized. In order to keep the discussion pedagogical aimed at a wider audience, we have avoided technical complications in several places and resorted to heuristic arguments based on physical perceptions. We presented underlying ideas of modified theories based upon chameleon mechanism and Vainshtein screening. We have given a lucid illustration of recently investigated ghost free non linear massive gravity. Again we have sacrificed rigor and confined to the basic ideas that led to the formulation of $dRGT$. The review ends with a brief discussion on the difficulties of the theory applied to cosmology with an optimism that a consistent solution of the problem is round the corner.