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We present a comparative analysis of the plethora of nonextensive and/or nonadditive entropies which go beyond the standard Boltzmann-Gibbs formulation. After defining the basic notions of additivity, extensivity, and composability, we discuss the properties of these entropies and their mutual relations, if they exist. The results are presented in two informative tables supposedly of strong interest to gravity and cosmology community in the context of intensively explored recent days the horizon entropies for black hole and cosmological models. This is since gravitational systems admit long-range interactions which usually lead to a break of the standard additivity rule for thermodynamical systems composed of subsystems in Boltzmann-Gibbs thermodynamics. The features of additivity, extensivity, and the composability are listed systematically. Some brief discussion on the validity of the notion of equilibrium temperature for nonextensive systems is also presented., Comment: 19 pages, 2 tables, matches published version in "Entropy" journal

We apply the full set of most update dynamical and geometrical data in cosmology to the nonextensive Barrow entropic holographic dark energy. We show that the data point towards an extensive Gibbs-like entropic behaviour for the cosmological horizons, which is the extreme case of the Barrow entropy, with the entropy parameter being $\Delta > 0.86$, close to the maximum threshold of $\Delta =1$ where the fractal dimension of the area-horizon becomes almost or just the volume and the intensivity is recovered. Futhermore, we find that the standard Bekenstein area-entropy limit ($\Delta = 0$) is excluded by the set of our data. This contradicts the bounds obtained recently from early universe tests such as the baryon asymmetry, the big-bang nucleosynthesis, and the inflation limiting $\Delta< 0.008$ at the most extreme case., Comment: 11 pages; 2 tables. Comments are welcome

The effect of the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) on nonextensive thermodynamics applied to black holes, as well as the sparsity of the radiation at different temperatures associated with each nonextensive entropy, is investigated. We examine the R\'enyi, Tsallis-Cirto, Kaniadakis, Sharma Mittal, and Barrow entropies, temperatures, and heat capacities and show that, in each case, due to GUP corrections, the temperature and entropy have finite values, implying that the final state of the black hole is a remnant at the end of the evaporation process and that the sparsity of the radiation for massless bosons at each temperature depends on the mass of the black hole. We also find that GUP reduces the value of the sparsity profile for each case as compared to the sparsity parameter at Hawking temperature, which is always constant throughout the evaporation., Comment: 17 pages, 20 figures, an improved version with new discussion on nonextensivity and nonadditivity

Hawking temperature has been widely utilised in the literature as the temperature that corresponds to various nonextensive entropies. In this study, we analyze the compatibility of the Hawking temperature with the nonextensive entropies. We demonstrate that, for every nonextensive entropy, one may define an effective temperature (which we call equilibrium temperature) by utilizing the equilibrium condition, and that there is always an additive equilibrium entropy associated with this effective temperature. Except for Bekenstein entropy, we show that Hawking temperature is thermodynamically inconsistent with other nonextensive entropies. We focus on the equilibrium requirement for the Tsallis-Cirto black hole entropy and demonstrate that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy is the related equilibrium entropy, and the Hawking temperature is the associated equilibrium temperature for the Tsallis-Cirto black hole entropy., Comment: 19 pages, some sections merged, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J. C

We consider observational consequences of the entanglement between our universe and a hypothetical twin anti-universe in the third quantization scheme of the canonical quantum gravity. Based on our previous investigations we select some special form of the interuniversal interaction which allows the entanglement entropy of the pair of universes to diverge at some critical points of their classical evolution. We find that the modification of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) power spectrum due to the entanglement with our twin anti-universe is enlarged for small modes $k$ and small multipole numbers $l$ with the Planck constraint onto the interaction coupling constant $\lambda_o\lesssim\mathcal{O}(10^{-56})$. Some other coupling functions which allow more critical points are also briefly commented on in the context of their observational effect on CMB and other observations., Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. To be published

Recently, a new cosmological framework, dubbed Ricci Cosmology, has been proposed. Such a framework has emerged from the study of relativistic dynamics of fluids out of equilibrium in a curved background and is characterised by the presence of deviations from the equilibrium pressure in the energy-momentum tensor which are due to linear terms in the Ricci scalar and the Ricci tensor. The coefficients in front of such terms are called the second order transport coefficients and they parametrise the fluid response to the pressure terms arising from the spacetime curvature. Under the preliminary assumption that the second order transport coefficients are constant, we find the simplest solution of Ricci cosmology in which the presence of pressure terms causes a departure from the perfect fluid redshift scaling for matter components filling the Universe. In order to test the viability of this solution, we make four different ans\"{a}tze on the transport coefficients, giving rise to four different cases of our model. On the physical ground of the second law of thermodynamics for fluids with non-equilibrium pressure, we find some theoretical bounds (priors) on the parameters of the models. Our main concern is then the check of each of the case against the standard set of cosmological data in order to obtain the observational bounds on the second order transport coefficients. We find those bounds also realising that Ricci cosmology model is compatible with $\Lambda$CDM cosmology for all the ans\"{a}tze., Comment: 14 pages, 5 tables, no figures, Revtex 4-1, an improved version

Using the 3rd quantization formalism we study the quantum entanglement of universes created in pairs within the framework of standard homogeneous and isotropic cosmology. In particular, we investigate entanglement quantities (entropy, temperature) around maxima, minima and inflection points of the classical evolution. The novelty from previous works is that we show how the entanglement changes in an extended minisuperspace parameterised by the scale factor and additionally, by the massless scalar field. We study the entanglement quantities for the universes which classically exhibit Big-Bang and other than Big-Bang (exotic) singularities such as Big-Brake, Big-Freeze, Big-Separation, and Little-Rip. While taking into account the scalar field, we find that the entanglement entropy is finite at the Big-Bang singularity and diverges at maxima or minima of expansion. As for the exotic singularity models we find that the entanglement entropy or the temperature in all the critical points and singularities is either finite or infinite, but it never vanishes. This shows that each of the universes of a pair is entangled to a degree parametrized by the entanglement quantities which measure the quantumness of the system. Apart from the von Neumann entanglement entropy, we also check the behaviour of the the Tsallis and the Renyi entanglement entropies, and find that they behave similarly as the meters of the quantumness. Finally, we find that the best-fit relation between the entanglement entropy and the Hubble parameter (which classically marks special points of the universe evolution) is of the logarithmic shape, and not polynomial, as one could initially expect., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, REVTEX4-1

A novel fractal structure for the cosmological horizon, inspired by COVID-19 geometry, which results in a modified area entropy, is applied to cosmology in order to serve dark energy. The constraints based on a complete set of observational data are derived. There is a strong Bayesian evidence in favor of such a dark energy in comparison to a standard $\Lambda$CDM model and that this energy cannot be reduced to a cosmological constant. Besides, there is a shift towards smaller values of baryon density parameter and towards larger values of the Hubble parameter, which reduces the Hubble tension., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication on Physical Review D (submitted 30 June 2020; accepted 3 September 2020)

We analyze the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) impact onto the nonextensive black hole thermodynamics by using R\'enyi entropy. We show that when introducing GUP effects, both R\'enyi entropy and temperature associated to black holes have finite values at the end of the evaporation process. We also study the sparsity of the radiation, associated with R\'enyi temperature, and compare it with the sparsity of Hawking radiation. Finally, we investigate GUP modifications to the sparsity of the radiation when GUP effects are introduced into R\'enyi temperature., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, extended introduction, results and conclusion, added new references, accepted in Phys. Rev. D

We present a formalism which allows for the perturbative derivation of the Extended Uncertainty Principle (EUP) for arbitrary spatial curvature models and observers. Entering the realm of small position uncertainties, we derive a general asymptotic EUP. The leading 2nd order curvature induced correction is proportional to the Ricci scalar, while the 4th order correction features the 0th order Cartan invariant Psi^2 (a scalar quadratic in curvature tensors) and the curved space Laplacian of the Ricci scalar all of which are evaluated at the expectation value of the position operator, i.e. the expected position when performing a measurement. This result is first verified for previously derived homogeneous space models and then applied to other non-trivial curvature related effects such as inhomogeneities, rotation and an anisotropic stress fluid leading to black hole "hair". Our main achievement combines the method we introduce with the Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) by virtue of deformed commutators to formulate a generic form of what we call the Asymptotic Generalized Extended Uncertainty Principle (AGEUP)., Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, Revtex 4-1, references added

Observations of the redshift z=7.085 quasar J1120+0641 have been used to search for variations of the fine structure constant, alpha, over the redshift range 5.5 to 7.1. Observations at z=7.1 probe the physics of the universe when it was only 0.8 billion years old. These are the most distant direct measurements of alpha to date and the first measurements made with a near-IR spectrograph. A new AI analysis method has been employed. Four measurements from the X-SHOOTER spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) directly constrain any changes in alpha relative to the value measured on Earth (alpha_0). The weighted mean strength of the electromagnetic force over this redshift range in this location in the universe is da/a = (alpha_z - alpha_0)/alpha_0 = (-2.18 +/- 7.27) X 10^{-5}, i.e. we find no evidence for a temporal change from the 4 new very high redshift measurements. When the 4 new measurements are combined with a large existing sample of lower redshift measurements, a new limit on possible spatial variation of da/a is marginally preferred over a no-variation model at the 3.7 sigma level., Comment: Accepted for publication in Science Advances

This paper evaluates some important aspects of the multiverse concept. Firstly, the most realistic opportunity for it which is the spacetime variability of the physical constants and may deliver worlds with different physics, hopefully fulfilling the conditions of the anthropic principles. Then, more esoteric versions of the multiverse being the realisation of some abstract mathematics or even logic. Finally, it evaluates the big challenge of getting any signal from "other universes" using recent achievements of the quantum theory., Comment: 21 pages, 2 figures

We find exact formulas for the Extended Uncertainty Principle (EUP) for the Rindler and Friedmann horizons and show that they can be expanded to obtain asymptotic forms known from the previous literature. We calculate the corrections to Hawking temperature and Bekenstein entropy of a black hole in the universe due to Rindler and Friedmann horizons. The effect of the EUP is similar to the canonical corrections of thermal fluctuations and so it rises the entropy signalling further loss of information., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, REVTEX 4.1, minor changes, refs updated

We explore cosmological solutions to Lorentz breaking gravity using the gravitational sector of the Standard Model Extension (SME). By using a simple toy model for Lorentz violation and under the assumption that the so-called $\mathfrak{T}$-tensor is covariantly constant, we show that the gravity sector SME influences basic cosmology. If the approach used in this toy model is valid these results should point the way for more sofisticated studies., Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure

We study the conformal structure of exotic (non-big-bang) singularity universes using the hybrid big-bang/exotic singularity/big-bang and big-rip/exotic singularity/big-rip models by investigating their appropriate Penrose diagrams. We show that the diagrams have the standard structure for the big-bang and big-rip and that exotic singularities appear just as the constant time hypersurfaces for the time of a singularity and because of their geodesic completeness are potentially transversable. We also comment on some applications and extensions of the Penrose diagram method in studying exotic singularities., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, matches published GRG version

The existence of a minimal length, predicted by different theories of quantum gravity, can be phenomenologically described in terms of a generalized uncertainty principle. We consider the impact of this quantum gravity motivated effect onto the information budget of a black hole and the sparsity of Hawking radiation during the black hole evaporation process. We show that the information is not transmitted at the same rate during the final stages of the evaporation and that the Hawking radiation is not sparse anymore when the black hole approaches the Planck mass., Comment: Awarded Honorable Mention in the 2018 Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition

We study the spontaneous baryogenesis scenario in the early universe for three different frameworks of varying constants theories. We replace the constants by dynamical scalar fields playing the role of thermions. We first obtain the results for baryogenesis driven by the varying gravitational constant, $G$, as in the previous literature, then challenge the problem for varying fine structure constant $\alpha$ models as well as for varying speed of light $c$ models. We show that in each of these frameworks the current observational value of the baryon to entropy ratio, $\eta_B \sim 8.6 \cdot 10^{-11}$, can be obtained for large set of parameters of dynamical constants models as well as the decoupling temperature, and the characteristic cut-off length scale., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

We investigate the generalized uncertainty principle (GUP) corrections to the entropy content and the information flux of black holes, as well as the corrections to the sparsity of the Hawking radiation at the late stages of evaporation. We find that due to these quantum gravity motivated corrections, the entropy flow per particle reduces its value on the approach to the Planck scale due to a better accuracy in counting the number of microstates. We also show that the radiation flow is no longer sparse when the mass of a black hole approaches Planck mass which is not the case for non-GUP calculations., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, typos corrected, published in Phys. Rev. D

The models of cyclic universes and cyclic multiverses based on the alternative gravity theories of varying constants are considered., Comment: 4 pages, no figures

We study scenarios of parallel cyclic multiverses which allow for a different evolution of the physical constants, while having the same geometry. These universes are classically disconnected, but quantum-mechanically entangled. Applying the thermodynamics of entanglement, we calculate the temperature and the entropy of entanglement. It emerges that the entropy of entanglement is large at big bang and big crunch singularities of the parallel universes as well as at the maxima of the expansion of these universes. The latter seems to confirm earlier studies that quantum effects are strong at turning points of the evolution of the universe performed in the context of the timeless nature of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and decoherence. On the other hand, the entropy of entanglement at big rip singularities is going to zero despite its presumably quantum nature. This may be an effect of total dissociation of the universe structures into infinitely separated patches violating the null energy condition. However, the temperature of entanglement is large/infinite at every classically singular point and at maximum expansion and seems to be a better measure of quantumness., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures. A new section (Sect. V) has been added with some remarks on the thermodynamics of entanglement and its observational consequences. Some minor typos have been corrected

We modify the standard relativistic dispersion relation in a way which breaks Lorentz symmetry - the effect is predicted in a high-energy regime of some modern theories of quantum gravity. We show that it is possible to realise this scenario within the framework of Rainbow Gravity which introduces two new energy-dependent functions $f_1(E)$ and $f_2(E)$ into the dispersion relation. Additionally, we assume that the gravitational constant $G$ and the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ also depend on energy $E$ and introduce the scaling function $h(E)$ in order to express this dependence. For cosmological applications we specify the functions $f_1$ and $f_2$ in order to fit massless particles which allows us to derive modified cosmological equations. Finally, by using Hubble+SNIa+BAO(BOSS+Lyman $\alpha$)+CMB data, we constrain the energy scale $E_{LV}$ to be at least of the order of $10^{16}$ GeV at $1\sigma$ which is the GUT scale or even higher $10^{17}$ GeV at $3\sigma$. Our claim is that this energy can be interpreted as the decoupling scale of massless particles from spacetime Lorentz violating effects., Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures, 1 table. Matches version published in Physics of the Dark Universe

Variation of the speed of light is quite a debated issue in cosmology with some benefits, but also with some controversial concerns. Many approaches to develop a consistent varying speed of light (VSL) theory have been developed recently. Although a lot of theoretical debate has sprout out about their feasibility and reliability, the most obvious and straightforward way to discriminate and check if such theories are really workable has been missed out or not fully employed. What is meant here is the comparison of these theories with observational data in a fully comprehensive way. In this paper we try to address this point i.e., by using the most updated cosmological probes, we test three different candidates for a VSL theory (Barrow \& Magueijo, Avelino \& Martins, and Moffat) signal. We consider many different ans\"{a}tze for both the functional form of $c(z)$ (which cannot be fixed by theoretical motivations) and for the dark energy dynamics, in order to have a clear global picture from which we extract the results. We compare these results using a reliable statistical tool such as the Bayesian Evidence. We find that the present cosmological data is perfectly compatible with any of these VSL scenarios, but in one case (Moffat model) we have a higher Bayesian Evidence ratio in favour of VSL than in the standard $c=$ constant $\Lambda$CDM scenario. Moreover, in such a scenario, the VSL signal can help to strengthen constraints on the spatial curvature (with indication toward an open universe), to clarify some properties of dark energy (exclusion of a cosmological constant at $2\sigma$ level) and is also falsifiable in the nearest future due to some peculiar issues which differentiate this model from the standard model. Finally, we have applied some priors which come from cosmology and, in particular, from information theory and gravitational thermodynamics., Comment: 16 pages, 7 tables. New section about priors has been added. Comments are welcome

Modified gravity theories with a screening mechanism have acquired much interest recently in the quest for a viable alternative to General Relativity on cosmological scales, given their intrinsic property of being able to pass Solar System scale tests and, at the same time, to possibly drive universe acceleration on much larger scales. Here, we explore the possibility that the same screening mechanism, or its breaking at a certain astrophysical scale, might be responsible of those gravitational effects which, in the context of general relativity, are generally attributed to Dark Matter. We consider a recently proposed extension of covariant Galileon models in the so-called "beyond Horndeski" scenario, where a breaking of the Vainshtein mechanism is possible and, thus, some peculiar observational signatures should be detectable and make it distinguishable from general relativity. We apply this model to a sample of clusters of galaxies observed under the \textit{CLASH} survey, using both new data from gravitational lensing events and archival data from X-ray intra-cluster hot gas observations. In particular, we use the latter to model the gas density, and then use it as the only ingredient in the matter clusters' budget to calculate the expected lensing convergence map. Results show that, in the context of this extended Galileon, the assumption of having only gas and no Dark Matter at all in the clusters is able to match observations. We also obtain narrow and very interesting bounds on the parameters which characterize this model. In particular, we find that, at least for one of them, the general relativity limit is excluded at $2\sigma$ confidence level, thus making this model clearly statistically different and competitive with respect to general relativity., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 Table, matching version published in JCAP

In this paper we extend a new method to measure possible variation of the speed of light by using Baryon Acoustic Oscillations and the Hubble function presented in our earlier paper [V. Salzano, M. P. D\c{a}browski, and R. Lazkoz, Phys. Rev. D93, 063521 (2016)] onto an inhomogeneous model of the universe. The method relies on the fact that there is a simple relation between the angular diameter distance $(D_{A})$ maximum and the Hubble function $(H)$ evaluated at the same maximum-condition redshift, which includes speed of light $c$. One limit of such method was the assumption of null spatial curvature (even if we showed that even a non-zero curvature would have negligible effects). Here, we move one step further: we explicitly assume a model with intrinsic non-null curvature, and calculate the exact relation between $D_{A}$ and $H$ in this case. Then, we evaluate if current or future missions such as SKA can be sensitive enough to detect any such kind of spatial variation of $c$ which can perhaps be related to the recently observed spatial variation of the fine structure constant (an effect known as $\alpha$-dipole)., Comment: 7 pages, 1 table

In [1] a new method to measure the speed of light through Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) was introduced. Here, we describe in much more detail the theoretical basis of that method, its implementation, and give some newly updated results about its application to the forecast data. In particular, we will show that SKA will be able to detect a 1% variation (if any) in the speed of light at 3$\sigma$ level. Smaller signals will be hardly detected by already-planned future galaxy surveys, but we give indications about what sensitivity requirements should a survey fulfill in order to be successful., Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

Using the idea of regularisation of singularities due to the variability of the fundamental constants in cosmology we study the cyclic universe models. We find two models of oscillating and non-singular mass density and pressure ("non-singular" bounce) regularised by varying gravitational constant $G$ despite the scale factor evolution is oscillating and having sharp turning points ("singular" bounce). Both violating (big-bang) and non-violating (phantom) null energy condition models appear. Then, we extend this idea onto the multiverse containing cyclic individual universes with either growing or decreasing entropy though leaving the net entropy constant. In order to get an insight into the key idea, we consider the doubleverse with the same geometrical evolution of the two "parallel" universes with their physical evolution (physical coupling constants $c(t)$ and $G(t)$) being different. An interesting point is that there is a possibility to exchange the universes at the point of maximum expansion -- the fact which was already noticed in quantum cosmology. Similar scenario is also possible within the framework of Brans-Dicke theory where varying $G(t)$ is replaced by the dynamical Brans-Dicke field $\phi(t)$ though these theories are slightly different., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, MNRAS style, revised, matches published version

We find the series of example theories for which the relativistic limit of maximum tension $F_{max} = c^4/4G$ represented by the entropic force can be abolished. Among them the varying constants theories, some generalized entropy models applied both for cosmological and black hole horizons as well as some generalized uncertainty principle models., Comment: 5 pages, no figures, REVTEX4-1, a typo in abstract corrected

We formulate the basic framework of thermodynamical entropic force cosmology which allows variation of the gravitational constant $G$ and the speed of light $c$. Three different approaches to the formulation of the field equations are presented. Some cosmological solutions for each framework are given and one of them is tested against combined observational data (supernovae, BAO, and CMB). From the fit of the data it is found that the Hawking temperature numerical coefficient $\gamma$ is two to four orders of magnitude less than usually assumed on the geometrical ground theoretical value of $O(1)$ and that it is also compatible with zero. Besides, in the entropic scenario we observationally test that the fit of the data is allowed for the speed of light $c$ growing and the gravitational constant $G$ diminishing during the evolution of the universe. We also obtain a bound on the variation of $c$ to be $\Delta c/c \propto 10^{-5} >0$ which is at least one order of magnitude weaker than the quasar spectra observational bound., Comment: Matched with published version. some changes in Section VII, 15 pages

In this letter we describe a new method to use Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) to derive a constraint on the possible variation of the speed of light. The method relies on the fact that there is a simple relation between the angular diameter distance $(D_{A})$ maximum and the Hubble function $(H)$ evaluated at the same maximum-condition redshift, which includes speed of light $c$. We note the close analogy of the BAO probe with a laboratory experiment: here we have $D_{A}$ which plays the role of a standard (cosmological) ruler, and $H^{-1}$, with the dimension of time, as a (cosmological) clock. We evaluate if current or future missions such as Euclid can be sensitive enough to detect any variation of $c$., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

We discuss minisuperspace models within the framework of varying physical constants theories including $\Lambda$-term. In particular, we consider the varying speed of light (VSL) theory and varying gravitational constant theory (VG) using the specific ans\"atze for the variability of constants: $c(a) = c_0 a^n$ and $G(a)=G_0 a^q$. We find that most of the varying $c$ and $G$ minisuperspace potentials are of the tunneling type which allows to use WKB approximation of quantum mechanics. Using this method we show that the probability of tunneling of the universe "from nothing" ($a=0)$ to a Friedmann geometry with the scale factor $a_t$ is large for growing $c$ models and is strongly suppressed for diminishing $c$ models. As for $G$ varying, the probability of tunneling is large for $G$ diminishing, while it is small for $G$ increasing. In general, both varying $c$ and $G$ change the probability of tunneling in comparison to the standard matter content (cosmological term, dust, radiation) universe models., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, REVTEX4-1, comment added, accepted to JCAP

This paper is devoted to some simple approach based on general physics tools to describe the physical properties of a hypothetical particle which can be the source of dark energy in the Universe known as phantom. Phantom is characterized by the fact that it possesses negative momentum and kinetic energy and that it gives large negative pressure which acts as antigravity. We consider phantom harmonic oscillator in comparison to a standard harmonic oscillator. By using the first law of thermodynamics we explain why the energy density of the Universe grows when it is filled with phantom. We also show how the collision of phantom with a standard particle leads to exploration of energy from the former by the latter (i.e. from phantom to the standard) if their masses are different. The most striking of our conclusions is that the collision of phantom and standard particles of the same masses is impossible unless both of them are at rest and suddenly start moving with the opposite velocities and kinetic energies. This effect is a classic analogue of a quantum mechanical particle pair creation in a strong electric field or in physical vacuum., Comment: 13 pages, no figures, REVTEX4-1, minor improvements, reference added

We consider spherically symmetric inhomogeneous pressure Stephani universes, the center of symmetry being our location. The main feature of these models is that comoving observers do not follow geodesics. In particular, comoving perfect fluids have necessarily a radially dependent pressure. We consider a subclass of these models characterized by some inhomogeneity parameter $\beta$. We show that also the velocity of sound, like the (effective) equation of state parameter, of comoving perfect fluids acquire away from the origin a time and radial dependent change proportional to $\beta$. In order to produce a realistic universe accelerating at late times without dark energy component one must take $\beta < 0$. The redshift gets a modified dependence on the scale factor $a(t)$ with a relative modification of $-9\%$ peaking at $z\sim 4$ and vanishing at the big-bang and today on our past lightcone. The equation of state parameter and the speed of sound of dustlike matter (corresponding to a vanishing pressure at the center of symmetry $r=0$) behave in a similar way and away from the center of symmetry they become negative -- a property usually encountered for the dark energy component only. In order to mimic the observed late-time accelerated expansion, the matter component must significantly depart from standard dust, presumably ruling this subclass of Stephani models out as a realistic cosmology. The only way to accept these models is to keep all standard matter components of the universe including dark energy and take an inhomogeneity parameter $\beta$ small enough., Comment: REVTEX4-1, 12 pages, 6 figures, explanatory material added, version to appear in PRD, conclusions and results unchanged

We refer to the classic definition of a singularity in Einstein's general relativity (based on geodesic incompletness) as well as to some other criteria to evaluate the nature of singularities in cosmology. We review what different (non-Big-Bang) types of singularities are possible even in the simplest cosmological framework of Friedmann cosmology. We also show that various cosmological singularities may be removed or changed due to the variability of physical constants., Comment: 15 pages, REVTEX4-1, 1 table, updated to a published reference. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1207.4038

Various classes of exotic singularity models have been studied as possible mimic models for the observed recent acceleration of the universe. Here we further study one of these classes and, under the assumption that they are phenomenological toy models for the behavior of an underlying scalar field which also couples to the electromagnetic sector of the theory, obtain the corresponding behavior of the fine-structure constant $\alpha$ for particular choices of model parameters that have been previously shown to be in reasonable agreement with cosmological observations. We then compare this predicted behavior with available measurements of $\alpha$, thus constraining this putative coupling to electromagnetism. We find that values of the coupling which would provide a good fit to spectroscopic measurements of $\alpha$ are in more than three-sigma tension with local atomic clock bounds. Future measurements by ESPRESSO and ELT-HIRES will provide a definitive test of these models., Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, REVTEX 4-1

We derive a luminosity distance formula for the varying speed of light (VSL) theory which involves higher order characteristics of expansion such as jerk, snap and lerk which can test the impact of varying $c$ onto the evolution of the universe. We show that the effect of varying $c$ is possible to be isolated due to the relations connecting observational parameters already by measuring the second-order term in redshift $z$ unless there is a redundancy between the curvature and an exotic fluid of cosmic strings scaling the same way as the curvature., Comment: 6 pages, REVTEX 4-1, no figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1310.7231

We discuss how dynamical dark energy universes with exotic singularities may be distinguished from the standard $\Lambda$CDM model on the basis of their redshift drift signal, for which measurements both in the acceleration phase and in the deep matter era will be provided by forthcoming astrophysical facilities. Two specific classes of exotic singularity models are studied: sudden future singularity models and finite scale factor singularity models. In each class we identify the models which can mimic $\Lambda$CDM and play the role of dark energy as well as models for which redshift drift signals are significantly different from $\Lambda$CDM and the test can differentiate between them., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Revtex 4-1, references added

Exact luminosity distance and apparent magnitude formulas are applied to Union2 557 supernovae sample in order to constrain possible position of an observer outside of the center of symmetry in spherically symmetric inhomogeneous pressure Stephani universes which are complementary to inhomogeneous density Lema\^itre-Tolman-Bondi (LTB) void models. Two specific models are investigated. The first which allows a barotropic equation of state at the center of symmetry with no scale factor function being specified (model IIA), and the second which has no barotropic equation of state at the center, but has an explicit dust-like scale factor evolution (model IIB). It is shown that even at $3\sigma$ CL, an off-center observer cannot be further than about 4.4 Gpc away from the center of symmetry which is comparable to the reported size of a void in LTB models with the most likely value of the distance from the center about 341 Mpc for model IIA and 68 Mpc for model IIB. The off-center observer cannot be farther away from the center than about 577 Mpc for model IIB at $3\sigma$ CL. It is evaluated that the best-fit parameters which characterize inhomogeneity are: $\Omega_{inh} = 0.77$ (dimensionless - model IIA) and $\alpha = 7.31 \cdot 10^{-9}$ $(s/km)^{2/3} Mpc^{-4/3}$ (model IIB)., Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures, AAS LATEX 5.2, version to appear in Astroph. Journal

We derive a redshift drift formula within the framework of varying speed of light (VSL) theory using the specific ansatz for the variability of $c(t) = c_0 a^n(t)$. We show that negative values of the parameter $n$, which correspond to diminishing value of the speed of light during the evolution of the universe, effectively rescales dust matter to become little negative pressure matter, and the cosmological constant to became phantom. Positive values of $n$ (growing $c(t)$) make VSL model to become more like Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model. Observationally, there is a distinction between the VSL model and the $\Lambda$CDM model for the admissible values of the parameter $n \sim - 10^{-5}$, though it will be rather difficult to detect by planned extremely large telescopes (E-ELT, TMT, GMT) within their accuracy., Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, title and body changed to match a published version on redshift drift only

We review the variety of new singularities in homogeneous and isotropic FRW cosmology which differ from standard Big-Bang and Big-Crunch singularities and suggest how the nature of these singularities can be influenced by the varying fundamental constants., Comment: 6 pages. To appear in Proceedings of the Sesto Conference on Varying fundamental constants and dynamical dark energy (Sesto, Italy, July 8-13, 2013)