The cosmological jerk parameter j is reconstructed in a non-parametric way from observational data independent of a fiducial cosmological model. The Cosmic Chronometer data as well as the Supernovae data (the Pantheon compilation) are used for the purpose. The reconstructed values are found to be consistent with the standard $$\Lambda $$ Λ CDM model within the $$2\sigma $$ 2 σ confidence level. The model dependent sets like Baryon Acoustic Oscillation and the CMB Shift data are also included thereafter, which does not significantly help in improving or de-proving the confidence level in favour of $$\Lambda $$ Λ CDM. The deceleration parameter q is also reconstructed from the same data sets. This is used to find the effective equation of state parameter for the model independent datasets only. $$\Lambda $$ Λ CDM model is excluded for some part of the evolution in $$1\sigma $$ 1 σ , but is definitely included in $$2\sigma $$ 2 σ in the domain ($$0 \le z \le 2.36$$ 0 ≤ z ≤ 2.36 ) of all the reconstructions.

The possibility of a non-gravitational interaction between the dark matter and the dark energy has been reconstructed using some recent datasets. The crucial aspect is that the interaction is not parametrized at the outset, but rather reconstructed directly from the data in a non-parametric way. The Cosmic Chronometer Hubble data, the Pantheon Supernova compilation of CANDELS and CLASH Multy-Cycle Treasury programs obtained by the HST, and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Hubble data have been considered in this work. The widely accepted Gaussian Process is used for the reconstruction. The results clearly indicate that a no interaction scenario is quite a possibility. Also, the interaction, if any, is not really significant at the present epoch. The direction of the flow of energy is clearly from the dark energy to the dark matter which is consistent with the thermodynamic requirement.

Two types of distance measurement are important in cosmological observations, the angular diameter distance dA and the luminosity distance dL. In the present work, we carried out an assessment of the theoretical relation between these two distance measurements, namely the cosmic distance duality relation, from type Ia supernovae (SN-Ia) data, the Cosmic Chronometer (CC) Hubble parameter data, and baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) data using Gaussian Process. The luminosity distance curve and the angular diameter distance curve are extracted from the SN-Ia data and the combination of BAO and CC data respectively using the Gaussian Process. The distance duality relation is checked by a non-parametric reconstruction using the reconstructed H, dL, and the volume-averaged distance Dv. We compare the results obtained for different choices of the covariance function employed in the Gaussian Process. It is observed that the theoretical distance duality relation is in well agreement with the present analysis in 2σ for the overlapping redshift domain 0 ≤ z ≤ 2 of the reconstruction.

Exact solutions are studied in the context of modified Brans-Dicke theory. The non-linearity of the modified Brans-Dicke field equations is treated with the Euler-Duarte-Moreira method of integrability of anharmonic oscillator equation. While some solutions show a forever accelerating nature, in some cases there is a signature flip in the evolution of deceleration parameter in recent past. Importance of these latter models are studied in the context of late time acceleration of the universe. Constraints on the model parameters are obtained from Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis using the Supernova distance modulus data, observational measurements of Hubble parameter, Baryon acoustic oscillation data and the CMB Shift parameter data.

The present work deals with holographic dark energy models with Hubble horizon as the infra-red cut-off. The interaction rate between dark energy and dark matter has been reconstructed with three different choices of the interaction term. It is shown that the coupling parameter of the interaction term should evolve with redshift to allow the successful transition from decelerated to accelerated phase of expansion. Constraints on the model parameters are obtained from Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis using the supernova distance modulus data and observational measurements of the Hubble parameter. Results show that the model with the coupling parameter increasing with redshift (z) or equivalently decreasing with the evolution, are ruled out. On the other hand, coupling parameters, increasing or slowly varying with the evolution, are consistent with the observed evolution scenario. A Bayesian evidence calculation has been carried out for statistical selection of the reconstructed models. Though the kinematical parameters are well behaved for these models, the physical variables which determine the nature of the components in the matter sector, are not at all realistic. We have concluded that the existence of spatial curvature is essential for this particular type of dark energy models. PACS numbers: 98.80.Cq; 98.80.k; 95.36.+x