Related papers: On the Initial Conditions in New Ekpyrotic Cosmolo…
In this article, we explore the homogeneous and isotropic flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) model in Chameleon cosmology. By considering a non-minimal coupling between the scalar field and matter, we present a non-singular bouncing…
We construct explicit models of classical primordial standard clocks in an alternative to inflation, namely the slowly contracting ekpyrotic scenario. We study the phenomenology of massive spectator fields added to a state-of-the-art…
We derive all single-field cosmologies with unit sound speed that generate scale invariant curvature perturbations on a dynamical attractor background. We identify three distinct phases: slow-roll inflation; a slowly contracting adiabatic…
There is a paradox in the standard model of cosmology. How can matter in the early universe have been in thermal equilibrium, indicating maximum entropy, but the initial state also have been low entropy (the "past hypothesis"), so as to…
A nonsingular emergent universe cosmology can be realized by a nonconventional spinor field as first developed in \cite{Cai:2012yf}. We study the mechanisms of generating scale-invariant primordial power spectrum of curvature perturbation…
We develop a comprehensive cosmological framework based on the principle that our universe originated as a three-dimensional spatial configuration governed purely by energy functionals, with time emerging dynamically through quantum loop…
We analyze the general conditions on the equation of state $w$ required for quantum fluctuations of a scalar field to produce a scale-invariant spectrum of density perturbations, including models which (in the four dimensional effective…
Astronomical observations have shown that the expansion of the universe is at present accelerating, in a way consistent with the presence of a positive cosmological constant. This is a major puzzle, because we do not understand: why the…
Determining the initial state of the universe is a challenging problem in quantum cosmology and we argue that the issue is intractable if the basic postulates of quantum mechanics are not modified in a nontrivial way. Namely a "standard"…
We study the role of non-perturbative quantum gravity effects in the Ekpyrotic/Cyclic model using the effective framework of loop quantum cosmology in the presence of anisotropies. We show that quantum geometric modifications to the…
In light of the recent observational data coming from the sky we have two significant directions in the field of theoretical cosmology recently. First, we are now able to make use of present observations, such as the Planck and BICEP2 data,…
Using a one-dimensional minisuperspace model with a dimensionless ratio $\frac{E}{E_{Pl}}$, we study the initial singularity problem at the quantum level for the closed rainbow cosmology with a homogeneous, isotropic classical space-time…
We propose a cosmological scenario in which the hot big bang universe is produced by the collision of a brane in the bulk space with a bounding orbifold plane, beginning from an otherwise cold, vacuous, static universe. The model addresses…
We present numerical relativity simulations of cosmological scenarios in which the universe is smoothed and flattened by undergoing a phase of slow contraction and test their sensitivity to a wide range of initial conditions. Our numerical…
We study two-field bouncing cosmologies in which primordial perturbations are created in either an ekpyrotic or a matter-dominated contraction phase. We use a non-singular ghost condensate bounce model to follow the perturbations through…
The mechanism of the initial inflationary scenario of the universe and of its late-time acceleration can be described by assuming the existence of some gravitationally coupled scalar fields $\phi $, with the inflaton field generating…
Time-symmetric cosmological theories, in which the initial and final states are arranged to have similar features or are independently fixed, have been quite extensively discussed in the literature. However, a more general and perhaps more…
A union of matter bounce and Ekpyrotic scenarios is often studied in an attempt to combine the most promising features of these two models. Since non-perturbative quantum geometric effects in loop quantum cosmology (LQC) result in natural…
The results from Planck2015, when combined with earlier observations from WMAP, ACT, SPT and other experiments, were the first observations to disfavor the "classic" inflationary paradigm. To satisfy the observational constraints,…
In this paper I will first outline an effective field theory for cosmology (EFTC) that is based on the Standard Model coupled to General Relativity and improved with Weyl symmetry. There are no new physical degrees of freedom in this…