Related papers: Big Bounce and inhomogeneities
We consider a spatially homogeneous and isotropic system of Dirac particles coupled to classical gravity. The dust and radiation dominated closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker space-times are recovered as limiting cases. We find a mechanism…
The big bounce transition of the quantum FRW model in the setting of loop quantum cosmology is presented. We determine the physical self-adjoint Hamiltonian generating the dynamics. It is used to define, via the Stone theorem, an evolution…
In this work, we investigate the notion of time and unitarity in the vicinity of a bounce in quantum cosmology, that is, a turning point for the scale factor. Because WKB methods drastically fail near a turning point, the scale factor…
We introduce "anamorphic" cosmology, an approach for explaining the smoothness and flatness of the universe on large scales and the generation of a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic density perturbations. The defining feature is…
The linear cosmological perturbation theory of an almost homogeneous and isotropic perfect fluid universe is reconsidered and formally simplified by introducing new covariant and gauge-invariant variables with physical interpretations on…
A new model is studied which describes the quantum behavior of transitions through an isotropic quantum cosmological bounce in loop quantum cosmology sourced by a free and massless scalar field. As an exactly solvable model even at the…
We present a detailed study of a simple scalar field model that yields non-singular cosmological solutions. We study both the qualitative dynamics of the homogeneous and isotropic background and the evolution of inhomogeneous linear…
An inhomogeneous version of pre--Big Bang cosmology emerges, within string theory, from quite generic initial conditions, provided they lie deeply inside the weak-coupling, low-curvature regime. Large-scale homogeneity, flatness, and…
The current standard model of cosmology, the LambdaCDM model, is based on the homogeneous FLRW solutions of the Einstein equations to which some perturbations are added to account for the CMB features and structure formation at large…
Astrophysical observations provide a picture of the universe as a 4-dim homogeneous and isotropic flat space-time dominated by an unknown form of dark energy. To achieve such a cosmology one has to consider in the early universe an…
Our universe appears to have been created not out of nothing but from a strange space-time dust. Quantum geometry (loop quantum gravity) makes it possible to avoid the ominous beginning of our universe with its physically unrealistic (i.e.…
We examine the nature of the cosmological big-bounce (BB) transition within the loop geometry underlying Loop Quantum Cosmology (LQC) at classical and quantum levels. Our canonical quantization method is an alternative to the standard LQC.…
Old and new puzzles of cosmology are reexamined from the point of view of quantum theory of the universe developed here. It is shown that in proposed approach the difficulties of the standard cosmology do not arise. The theory predicts the…
In the matter bounce scenario, a dust-dominated contracting space-time generates scale-invariant perturbations that, assuming a nonsingular bouncing cosmology, propagate to the expanding branch and set appropriate initial conditions for the…
Non-perturbative quantum geometric effects in Loop Quantum Cosmology predict a $\rho^2$ modification to the Friedmann equation at high energies. The quadratic term is negative definite and can lead to generic bounces when the matter energy…
We propose a picture, within the pre-big-bang approach, in which the universe emerges from a bath of plane gravitational and dilatonic waves. The waves interact gravitationally breaking the exact plane symmetry and lead generically to…
We study the dynamics of isotropic and homogeneous universes in the generalized Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity, and classify all possible evolutions of vacuum spacetime. In the case without the detailed balance condition, we find a variety of…
We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…
We review the general features of nonsingular universes ({\em i.e.} those that go from an era of accelerated collapse to an expanding era without displaying a singularity) as well as cyclic universes. We discuss the mechanisms behind the…
Several scenarios have been proposed in which primordial perturbations could originate from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phase corresponding to a collapse phase (in an Einstein frame) preceding the Big Bang. I briefly review three…