https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-3912-4
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
A complete cosmological scenario from 
gravity theory
1
ITA-Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, Departamento de Física, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, 12228-900, Brazil
2
UFCG-Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, Departamento de Física, Campina Grande, Paraíba, 58109-970, Brazil
* e-mail: moraes.phrs@gmail.com
Received:
13
November
2015
Accepted:
25
January
2016
Published online:
4
February
2016
Recent elaborated by Harko et al., the f(R, T) theories of gravity allow one to contemplate an optimistic alternative to dark energy, for which R and T stand for the Ricci scalar and the trace of the energy-momentum tensor, respectively. Although the literature has shown that the T dependence on the gravitational part of the action – which is due to the consideration of quantum effects – may induce some novel features in the scope of late-time cosmological dynamics, in the radiation-dominated universe, when 
, no contributions seem to arise from such theories. Apparently, f(R, T) contributions to a radiation-dominated universe may arise only from the approach, which is nothing but the f(R, T) gravity in the case of a self-interacting scalar field whose trace of the energy-momentum tensor is 
. We intend, in this article, to show how theories of gravity can contribute to the study of the primordial stages of the universe. Our results predict a graceful exit from an inflationary stage to a radiation-dominated era. They also predict a late-time cosmic acceleration after a matter-dominated phase, enabling the theories to describe, in a self-consistent way, all the different stages of the dynamics of the universe.
© The Author(s), 2016
