Related papers: Ekpyrotic Non-Gaussianity -- A Review
The scalar field is considered to have dominated the early Universe. One subtle yet crucial requirement of this assumption is that the solution must be highly stable, i.e., indifferent to any initial conditions because there are no favored…
We study a model for a non-singular cosmic bounce in N=1 supergravity, based on supergravity versions of the ghost condensate and cubic Galileon scalar field theories. The bounce is preceded by an ekpyrotic contracting phase which prevents…
We explore the possibility of a scalar field driving ekpyrotic contraction through a non-canonical kinetic energy density rather than a negative potential. We find that this kinetically-driven ekpyrosis ("k-ekpyrosis") can be achieved in a…
We consider bouncing cosmologies in which an ekpyrotic contraction phase with w >> 1 is followed by a bouncing phase with w < -1 that violates the null energy condition. The bouncing phase, induced by ghost condensation, is designed to…
We examine the processes of quantum squeezing and decoherence of density perturbations produced during a slowly contracting ekpyrotic phase in which entropic perturbations are converted to curvature perturbations before the bounce to an…
In a recent paper arXiv:0910.2230, Khoury and Steinhardt proposed a way to generate adiabatic cosmological perturbations with a nearly flat spectrum in a contracting Universe. To produce these perturbations they used a regime in which the…
The large-scale clustering of galaxies can serve as a probe of primordial non-Gaussianity in the Universe competitive with the anisotropies of the CMB. Here, we present improved theoretical predictions which include an important, previously…
In the standard picture of structure formation, initially random-phase fluctuations are amplified by non-linear gravitational instability to produce a final distribution of mass which is highly non-Gaussian and has highly coupled Fourier…
Cosmological perturbation theory fails in the new ekpyrotic and cyclic ekpyrotic scenarios, before the scale factor of the Universe reaches zero. As a result, a recently-proposed recipe for evolving the curvature perturbation through the…
In the paper ``Density perturbations in the ekpyrotic scenario'', it is argued that the expected spectrum of primordial perturbations should be scale invariant in this scenario. Here we show that, contrary to what is claimed in that paper,…
We study the transfer of cosmological perturbations through a nonsingular cosmological bounce in a special model in which the parameters of the bounce and the equation of state of matter are chosen such as to allow for an exact calculation…
In holographic models of cosmology based on the (A)dS/CFT correspondence, conformal symmetry is implicit in the dual description of the Universe. Generically, however, one cannot expect the (broken) conformal invariance in the cosmic…
In the framework of scalar-tensor theories of gravity, we construct a new kind of cosmological model that conflates inflation and ekpyrosis. During a phase of conflation, the universe undergoes accelerated expansion, but with crucial…
In the framework of Loop Quantum Cosmology, we study a cosmological bouncing model with two fields that reproduce the desired features of the primordial power spectra. The model combines the matter-bounce mechanism, that generates…
In cyclic universe models based on a single scalar field (e.g., the radion determining the distance between branes in M-theory), virtually the entire universe makes it through the ekpyrotic smoothing and flattening phase, bounces, and…
We study density perturbations in several cosmological models motivated by string theory. The evolution and the spectra of curvature perturbations ${\cal R}$ are analyzed in the Ekpyrotic scenario and nonsingular string cosmologies. We find…
We explore the isotropization of a model anisotropic universe in the bouncing models using the ekpyrotic potential without assuming initial conditions corresponding to an ekpyrotic phase. In particular, we explore the way the use of…
We calculate the Bayesian evidences for a class of Ekpyrotic universe models, and compare with a model of single field inflation with a Higgs-type potential. Combining parsimony and observational constraints, this gives us a systematic way…
Gravity is a non-linear theory, and hence, barring cancellations, the initial super-horizon perturbations produced by inflation must contain some minimum amount of mode coupling, or primordial non-Gaussianity. In single-field slow-roll…
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…