Partial rip scenario - a cosmology with a growing cosmological term

A cosmology with the growing cosmological constant (CC) energy density is considered. The requirement of general covariance implies the time dependence of the gravitational constant G. Irrespectively of the exact functional form of the growth of the CC energy density, the universe ends in a de Sitter regime with a constant asymptotic Λ, but vanishing G. Although there is no divergence of the scale factor in finite time, such as in the " Big Rip " scenario, gravitationally bound systems eventually become unbound. In the case of systems bound by non-gravitational forces, there is no unbounding effect, as the asymptotic Λ is insufficiently large to disturb these systems. Cosmological observations of increasing quantity, quality and diversity have established a new picture of the universe, its composition and dynamics [1]. Measurements of luminosity-redshift relations for the supernovae of type Ia (SNIa) [2] and the temperature anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) [3], in agreement with other cosmological observations, have determined