Related papers: The Matter Bounce Curvaton Scenario
The contribution from quantum vacuum fluctuations of a real massless scalar field to the motion of a test particle that interacts with the field in the presence of a perfectly reflecting flat boundary is here investigated. There is no…
Matter bounces refer to scenarios wherein the universe contracts at early times as in a matter dominated epoch until the scale factor reaches a minimum, after which it starts expanding. While such scenarios are known to lead to scale…
Quantum fluctuations of a nonminimally coupled scalar field in D-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic background are calculated within the operator formalism in curved models with time evolutions of the scale factor that allow smooth…
In this paper we examine the stability of scalar perturbations in nonsingular models which emerge from an interacting vacuum component. The analysis developed in this paper relies on two phenomenological choices for the energy exchange…
In this paper, we calculate the spectrum of scalar field fluctuations in a bouncing, asymptotically flat Universe, and investigate the dependence of the result on changes in the physics on length scales shorter than the Planck length which…
A recent variant of the inflationary paradigm is that the ``primordial'' curvature perturbations come from quantum fluctuations of a scalar field, subdominant and effectively massless during inflation, called the ``curvaton'', instead of…
If the spatial sections of the Universe are positively curved, extrapolating the inflationary stage backward in time inevitably leads to a classical bounce. This simple scenario, non-singular and free of exotic physics, deserves to be…
A bouncing cosmology with an initial matter-dominated phase of contraction during which scales which are currently probed with cosmological observations exit the Hubble radius provides a mechanism alternative to inflation for producing a…
As an alternative to the paradigm of slow roll inflation, we propose an extended scenario of the matter bounce cosmology in which the Universe has experienced a quasi-matter contracting phase with a variable background equation of state…
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…
We investigate the role played by the vacuum of the primordial fluctuations in hybrid Loop Quantum Cosmology. We consider scenarios where the inflaton potential is a mass term and the unperturbed quantum geometry is governed by the…
In the ekpyrotic scenario the Universe is initially collapsing, the energy density coming from a scalar field with a negative exponential potential. On the basis of a calculation ignoring the gravitational back-reaction the authors of the…
Bouncing cosmologies, while offering a compelling alternative to inflationary models, face challenges from the growth of vector perturbations during the contracting phase. While linear vector instabilities can be avoided with specific…
We study the spectrum of cosmological fluctuations in scenarios such as Galilean Genesis in which a spectator scalar field acquires a scale-invariant spectrum of perturbations during an early phase which asymptotes in the far past to…
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…
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…
The universe can be made flat and smooth by undergoing a phase of ultra-slow (ekpyrotic) contraction, a condition achievable with a single, canonical scalar field and conventional general relativity. It has been argued, though, that…
In this paper we study the evolution of cosmological perturbations through a nonsingular bouncing universe using covariant perturbation theory and examine the validity of linear perturbation theory. The bounce is modeled by a two component…
A non-singular bouncing cosmology is generically obtained in loop quantum cosmology due to non-perturbative quantum gravity effects. A similar picture can be achieved in standard general relativity in the presence of a scalar field with a…
We study a contracting universe composed of cold dark matter and radiation, and with a positive cosmological constant. As is well known from standard cosmological perturbation theory, under the assumption of initial quantum vacuum…