In this thesis the author constructs a comprehensive unifying framework for understanding the observational impact of general classes of dark sector theories, by formulating equations of state for the dark sector perturbations.
Generalized Perturbations in Modified Gravity and Dark Energy
Gravitational theories and cosmology.- The effective action formalism for cosmological perturbations.- Metric only and first order scalar field theory.- High derivative theories.- Explicit theories.- Connections to massive gravity.- Generalized fluid description.- Observational signatures of generalized cosmological perturbations.- Discussion and final remarks.