Raychaudhuri equation and the dynamics of cosmic evolution

Abstract

The paper deals with the Raychaudhuri equation (RE) which is a non-linear ordinary differential equation in Θ, the expansion scalar corresponding to a geodesic flow. Focusing theorem which follows as a consequence of the RE has been restated in terms of the cosmic parameter q (deceleration parameter) both for Einstein gravity and for modified gravity theories. Measurable quantities namely the luminosity distance and density parameter are shown to have an upper bound using the Raychaudhuri scalar. An analogy between geometric and cosmological RE has been made. Subsequently, to find the solution of the non-linear RE a transformation of variable related to the metric scalar of the hyper-surface has been identified which converts the former to a second order differential equation. Finally, the first integral of this second order differential equation gives the entire picture of the dynamics of cosmic evolution