Early and late time cosmology: the $f(R)$ gravity perspective

Understand

Discrepancies between observations at early and late cosmic epochs, and the vacuum energy problem associated with the interpretation of cosmological constant, are questioning the $\Lambda$CDM model.

• Motivated by these conceptual and observational facts, extensions of Einstein's gravity are recently intensively considered in view of curing unsolved issues suffered by General Relativity at ultraviolet and infrared scales.
• Here, we provide a short overview of some aspects of $f(R)$ gravity, focusing, in particular, on cosmological applications.
• Specifically, Noether symmetries are adopted as a criterion to select viable models and investigate the corresponding dynamics.