Gas models for inflation and quintessence

Abstract

Specific internal self-interactions in gaseous cosmic fluids are shown to give rise to effective negative pressures which may violate the strong energy condition. On this basis we discuss the transition from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker period as a non-equilibrium configuration of an ultrarelativistic gas. An accelerated expansion of the present universe is obtained as the consequence of a negative internal friction force which is self-consistently exerted on the non-relativistic cold dark matter (CDM) type microscopic constituents of the cosmic gas.