Teleparallel Robertson-Walker geometries and applications

Abstract

In teleparallel geometries the coframe and corresponding spin-connection are the principal geometric objects and consequently the appropriate definition of a symmetry is that of an affine symmetry. The set of invariant coframes and their corresponding spin connections that respect the full six dimensional Lie algebra of Robertson-Walker affine symmetries are displayed and discussed. We will refer to such geometries as teleparallel Robertson-Walker (TRW) geometries, where the corresponding derived metric is of Robertson-Walker form and is characterized by the parameter $k = (-1,0,1)$. The field equations are explicitly presented for the $F(T)$ class of teleparallel TRW spacetimes. We are primarily interested in investigating the $k \neq 0$ TRW models. After first studying the $k=0$ models and, in particular, writing their governing field equations in an appropriate form, we then study their late time stability with respect to perturbations in $k$ in both the cases of a vanishing and non-vanishing effective cosmological constant term. As an illustration we consider both quadratic $F(T)$ theories and power-law solutions.