Cosmic Acceleration and Modified Gravitational Models

Abstract

There is now overwhelming observational evidence that our Universe is accelerating in its expansion. I discuss how modified gravitational models can provide an explanation for this observed late-time cosmic acceleration. We consider specific low-curvature corrections to the Einstein-Hilbert action. Many of these models generically contain unstable de Sitter solutions and, depending on the parameters of the theory, late-time accelerating attractor solutions.