Higher-order theories of gravity matched with large-scale structure and cosmological observations

Abstract

The so-called f(R)-gravity could, in principle, explain the accelerated expansion of the Universe without adding unknown forms of dark energy/dark matter, but more simply extending the general relativity by generic functions of the Ricci scalar. However, as a part of several phenomenological models, there is no final f(R)-theory capable of fitting all the observations and addressing all the issues related to the presence of dark energy and dark matter. Astrophysical observations are pointing out huge amounts of “dark matter” and “dark energy” needed to explain the observed large-scale structures and cosmic accelerating expansion. Up to now, no experimental evidence has been found, at a fundamental level, to explain such mysterious components. The problem could be completely reversed considering dark matter and dark energy as “shortcomings” of general relativity.