LRS Bianchi Cosmological Model in Saez-Ballester Theory of Gravity with Time Varying Cosmological Constant

The present work deals with the study of a locally rotationally symmetric (LRS) Bianchi type-I cosmological model in the framework of a scalar-tensor theory of gravity formulated by Saez and Ballester with time varying cosmological constant. To obtain the explicit solutions of the Saez-Ballester field equations we assume the average scale factor to obey a power law expansion and the cosmological constant to be proportional to the energy density of the cosmic fluid. The dynamical behaviour of relevant cosmological parameters including the Hubble parameter, the deceleration parameter, the energy density, the pressure, the equation of state parameter, the cosmological constant, the shear scalar, the expansion scalar etc. are investigated graphically by examining their evolution versus the redshift parameter. The validation of the four energy conditions are also checked. We find the outcomes of the constructed model to be in good agreement with the recent observational data.