English

Unconventional Cosmology

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2015-06-04 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology High Energy Physics - Phenomenology High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

I review two cosmological paradigms which are alternative to the current inflationary scenario. The first alternative is the "matter bounce", a non-singular bouncing cosmology with a matter-dominated phase of contraction. The second is an "emergent" scenario, which can be implemented in the context of "string gas cosmology". I will compare these scenarios with the inflationary one and demonstrate that all three lead to an approximately scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological perturbations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1203.6698,
  title  = {Unconventional Cosmology},
  author = {Robert H. Brandenberger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.6698},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

45 pages, 10 figures; invited lectures at the 6th Aegean Summer School "Quantum Gravity and Quantum Cosmology", Chora, Naxos, Greece, Sept. 12 - 17 2012, to be publ. in the proceedings; these lecture notes form an updated version of arXiv:1003.1745 and arXiv:1103.2271

R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:42:12.470Z