Cosmological behavior in extended nonlinear massive gravity

Abstract

We perform a detailed dynamical analysis of various cosmological scenarios in extended (varying-mass) nonlinear massive gravity. Due to the enhanced freedom in choosing the involved free functions, this cosmological paradigm allows for a huge variety of solutions that can attract the universe at late times, comparing to scalar-field cosmology or usual nonlinear massive gravity. Amongst others, it accepts quintessence, phantom, or cosmological-constant-like late-time solutions, which moreover can alleviate the coincidence problem. These features seem to be general and non-sensitive to the imposed ansantzes and model parameters, and thus extended nonlinear massive gravity can be a good candidate for the description of nature.

41 pages, 6 figures, 12 Tables, minor changes, version pubished in Class.Quant.Grav