English

Cosmological D-instantons and Cyclic Universes

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-11-11 v2

Abstract

For models of gravity coupled to hyperbolic sigma models, such as the metric-scalar sector of IIB supergravity, we show how smooth trajectories in the `augmented target space' connect FLRW cosmologies to non-extremal D-instantons through a cosmological singularity. In particular, we find closed cyclic universes that undergo an endless sequence of big-bang to big-crunch cycles separated by instanton `phases'. We also find `big-bounce' universes in which a collapsing closed universe bounces off its cosmological singularity to become an open expanding universe.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.hep-th/0504011,
  title  = {Cosmological D-instantons and Cyclic Universes},
  author = {E. A. Bergshoeff and A. Collinucci and D. Roest and J. G. Russo and P. K. Townsend},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/0504011},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

21 pages, 4 figures. v2: minor changes

R2 v1 2026-07-22T15:29:22.892Z