Accelerated Cosmic Expansion

Proceedings from the 2012 Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, focusing on accelerated cosmic expansion

This volume provides both an update and a review of the state of alternative theories of gravity in connection with the accelerated expansion of the universe issue. Different theoretical proposals exist to explain the acceleration in the cosmic expansion, generating the dark energy issue and opening the possibility to theories of gravity alternative to general relativity. Related issues such as the dark matter problem are also surveyed in order to give the readers profound insight on the subject from different points of view. Comprised of short talks and plenary lectures given by leading experts in the field, some of them with brilliant and historic contributions, the book allows the reader to find readable and referenced surveys in topics like f(R) theories, the dark matter and dark energy issues, Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) scenarios, f(T) theories, scalar-tensor theories derived from non-Riemannian geometries, emergent universes, the cosmological constant and other topics of current interest for younger and senior physicists and graduate students.

These proceedings are from the Fourth International Meeting on Gravitation and Cosmology, held in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México, from 20 - 25 May, 2012, was sponsored by ICTP- Trieste, Italy and COECyTJAL-Universidad de Guadalajara, México. This event is a series of scientific meetings started in 2004 in Cuba, focusing on current and selected topics in the fields of gravitation and cosmology.

Prof. Claudia Moreno González earned her PhD from the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in Mexico City. She held a postdoctoral position at Penn State University from 2001-2002, and then a fellowship at the University of Texas from 2002-2003. She is a member of the National Research System in Mexico and is a reviewer for the Journal of Mathematical Physics. Currently, González is a professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara.

Prof. José Edgar Madriz Aguilar earned his PhD in physics from the Institute of Physics and Mathematics at the Universidad Michoacána de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, in Morelia, México. He held a postdoctoral position at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba in Brazil, then at the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina, and finally at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. Prof. Madriz Aguilar has more than 30 refereed journal publications and is a member of the National Research System in Mexico. He is a guest editor of the journal Advances in High Energy Physics and a professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara.

Prof. Luz Marina Reyes Barrera earned her PhD from the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico. She held a postdoctoral position in the mathematics department at the Universidad de Guadalajara and was then granted a fellowship by Conacyt-Mexico for research activities equivalent to the National Research System members. She is a reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Physics and is currently a professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara.