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Despite the extraordinary attention that modified gravity theories have attracted over the past decade, the geodesic deviation equation in this context has not received proper formulation thus far. This equation provides an elegant way to investigate the timelike, null and spacelike structure of spacetime geometries. In this investigation we provide the full derivation of this equation in situations where general relativity has been extended in Robertson-Walker background spacetimes. We find that for null geodesies the contribution arising from the geometrical new terms is in general nonzero. Finally we apply the results to a well-known class of /(/?) theories, compare the results with general relativity predictions and obtain the equivalent area distance relation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years much attention has been given to the study of modified gravity theories in order to find a more natural explanation for the late time acceleration of the Universe. Nevertheless, a comparison of the matter power spectrum predictions made by these theories with available data has not yet been subjected to a detailed analysis. In the context of f(R) theories of gravity we study the predicted power spectra using both a dynamical systems approach for the background and solving for the matter perturbations without using the quasistatic approximation, comparing the theoretical results with several Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. The importance of studying the first order perturbed equations by assuming the correct background evolution and the relevance of the initial conditions are also stressed. We determine the statistical significance in relation to the observational data and demonstrate their conflict with existing observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the most general quadratic curvature action with torsion including infinite covariant derivatives and study its implications around the Minkowski background via the Palatini approach. Provided the torsion is solely given by the background axial field, the metric and torsion are shown to decouple, and both of them can be made ghost and singularity free for a fermionic source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of extended teleparallel gravity theories with a 3 + 1 -dimensional Gauss-Bonnet analog term, we address the possibility of these theories reproducing several well-known cosmological bouncing scenarios in a four-dimensional Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker geometry. We study which types of gravitational Lagrangians are capable of reconstructing bouncing solutions provided by analytical expressions for symmetric, oscillatory, superbounce, matter bounce, and singular bounce. Some of the Lagrangians discovered are analytical at the origin, having both Minkowski and Schwarzschild vacuum solutions. All these results open up the possibility for such theories to be competitive candidates of extended theories of gravity in cosmological scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years much attention has been given to the study of modified gravity theories in order to find a more natural explanation for the late time acceleration of the Universe. Nevertheless, a comparison of the matter power spectrum predictions made by these theories with available data has not yet been subjected to a detailed analysis. In the context of f(R) theories of gravity we study the predicted power spectra using both a dynamical systems approach for the background and solving for the matter perturbations without using the quasistatic approximation, comparing the theoretical results with several Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. The importance of studying the first order perturbed equations by assuming the correct background evolution and the relevance of the initial conditions are also stressed. We determine the statistical significance in relation to the observational data and demonstrate their conflict with existing observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the consistency of a recently proposed class of theories described by an arbitrary function of the Ricci scalar, the trace of the energy-momentum tensor, and the contraction of the Ricci tensor with the energy-momentum tensor. We briefly discuss the limitations of including the energy-momentum tensor in the action, as it is a nonfundamental quantity but a quantity that should be derived from the action. The fact that theories containing nonlinear contractions of the Ricci tensor usually lead to the presence of pathologies associated with higher-order equations of motion will be shown to constrain the stability of this class of theories. We provide a general framework and show that the conformal and nonminimal couplings to the matter fields usually lead to higher-order equations of motion. To illustrate such limitations, we explicitly study the cases of a canonical scalar field, a K-essence field, and a massive vector field, whereas for the scalar field cases, it is possible to find healthy theories, and for the vector field case, the presence of instabilities is unavoidable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]