Related papers: Ekpyrotic loop quantum cosmology
The quantum bounce a priori connects several (semi)classical epochs of Universe evolution, however determining if and how well the semiclassicality is preserved in this transition is highly nontrivial. We review the present state of…
It is well known that a closed universe with a minimally coupled massive scalar field always collapses to a singularity unless the initial conditions are extremely fine tuned. We show that the corrections to the equations of motion for the…
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 consider quantum field theory on a spacetime representing the Big Crunch/Big Bang transition postulated in the ekpyrotic or cyclic cosmologies. We show via several independent methods that an essentially unique matching rule holds…
Loop quantum cosmology predicts that, in simple models, the big bang singularity of classical general relativity is replaced by a quantum bounce. Because of the extreme physical conditions near the bounce, a natural question is whether the…
Loop quantum cosmology is an application of recent developments for a non-perturbative and background independent quantization of gravity to a cosmological setting. Characteristic properties of the quantization such as discreteness of…
A period of slow contraction with equation of state w > 1, known as an ekpyrotic phase, has been shown to flatten and smooth the universe if it begins the phase with small perturbations. In this paper, we explore how robust and powerful the…
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…
For bouncing cosmologies such as the ekpyrotic/cyclic scenarios we show that it is possible to make predictions for density perturbations which are independent of the details of the bouncing phase. This can be achieved, as in inflationary…
This chapter provides a review of the frameworks developed for cosmological perturbation theory in loop quantum cosmology, and applications to various models of the early universe including inflation, ekpyrosis and the matter bounce, with…
The entropic mechanism for producing nearly scale-invariant density perturbations in a contracting ekpyrotic universe relies on having an unstable scalar potential. Here we develop a variant of this mechanism (recently proposed by Qiu, Gao…
The Ekpyrotic scenario is studied in the context of some extensions of Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity. Some particular solutions that lead to cyclic Hubble parameters are analyzed, where the corresponding gravitational actions are…
The evolution of the spectrum of cosmological fluctuations from one cycle to the next is studied. It is pointed out that each cycle leads to a reddening of the spectrum. This opens up new ways to generate a scale-invariant spectrum of…
We investigate the dynamics of the Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker spacetime within the framework of $f(R)$ gravity using a compact, model-independent dynamical systems approach. By assuming a power-law scale factor, we explore…
The spatially flat and isotropic cosmological model of Brans-Dicke theory with coupling parameter $\omega\neq-3/2$ is quantized by the approach of loop quantum cosmology. An interesting feature of this model is that, although the…
A major challenge at the interface of quantum gravity and cosmology is to explain the emergence of the large-scale structure of the Universe from Planck scale physics. In this letter, we extract the dynamics of scalar isotropic cosmological…
Different approaches to quantum gravity, such as loop quantum cosmology and group field theory, predict the resolution of the initial cosmological singularity via a bounce: a regular spacetime region that connects the expanding branch of…
We construct a simple non singular cosmological model in which the currently observed expansion phase was preceded by a contraction. This is achieved, in the framework of pure general relativity, by means of a radiation fluid and a free…
An oscillating universe cycles through a series of expansions and contractions. We propose a model in which ``phantom'' energy with $p < -\rho$ grows rapidly and dominates the late-time expanding phase. The universe's energy density is so…
We investigate the bounce realization in the framework of DHOST cosmology, focusing on the relation with observables. We perform a detailed analysis of the scalar and tensor perturbations during the Ekpyrotic contraction phase, the bounce…