Related papers: Contracting Cosmologies and the Swampland
We argue that in the context of string theory a large number N of connected degenerate vacua that mix will lead to a ground state with much lower energy, essentially because of the standard level repulsion of quantum theory for the…
We investigate the post-bounce background dynamics in a certain class of single bounce scenarios studied in the literature, in which the cosmic bounce is driven by a scalar field with negative exponential potential such as the ekpyrotic…
We study the minimally and non-minimally coupled scalar field models as possible alternatives for dark energy, the mysterious energy component that is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe. After discussing the dynamics at both…
Quantum field theory predicts that vacuum energy (or what is the same, cosmological constant) should be 50-100 orders of magnitude larger than the existing astronomical limit. A very brief review of possible solutions of this problem is…
We construct cubic gravity and its $f(P)$ extension and we investigate their early- and late-time cosmological applications. Cubic gravity is based on a particular invariant $P$, constructed from cubic contractions of the Riemann tensor,…
We explicitly confirm that spatially flat non-singular bouncing cosmologies make sense as effective theories. The presence of a non-singular bounce in a spatially flat universe implies a temporary violation of the null energy condition,…
We consider non-minimally coupled (with gravity) scalar field with non-canonical kinetic energy. The form of the kinetic term is of Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) form.We study the early evolution of the universe when it is sourced only by the…
We derive a model of dark energy which evolves with time via the scale factor. The equation of state $\omega=(1-2\alpha)/(1+2\alpha)$ is studied as a function of a parameter $\alpha$ introduced in this model. In addition to the recent…
Swampland conjectures (SCs) of string theory require that a constant cosmological constant $\Lambda$ be replaced by a time-dependent scalar-field quintessence with constrained parameters. The constraints limit the duration of the present…
We study a cosmological model of gravity coupled to three, self-interacting scalar fields, one of them with negative kinetic term. The theory has cosmological solutions described by three-dimensional quadratic autonomous equations, leading…
Horndeski derived a most general vector-tensor theory in which the vector field respects the gauge symmetry and the resulting dynamical equations are of second order. The action contains only one free parameter, $\lambda$, that determines…
In this paper, we present a new scenario of the early Universe that contains a pre big bang Ekpyrotic phase. By combining this with a ghost condensate, the theory explicitly violates the null energy condition without developing any…
The weak gravity conjecture has been proposed as a criterion to distinguish the landscape from the swampland in string theory. As an application in cosmology of this conjecture, we use it to impose theoretical constraint on parameters of…
This paper investigated two scalar field cosmological models in $f(R,T)$ gravity with cosmic transit and varying cosmological constant $\Lambda(t)$.The cosmological constant tends to have a tiny positive value in the current epoch.The…
A simple argument shows that negative energy cannot be isolated far away from positive energy in a conformal field theory and strongly constrains its possible dispersal. This is also required by consistency with the Bekenstein bound written…
Anthropic solutions to the cosmological constant problem require seemingly unnatural scalar field potentials with a very small slope or domain walls (branes) with a very small coupling to a four-form field. Here we introduce a class of…
We describe a rigorous construction, using matched asymptotic expansions, which establishes under very general conditions that local terrestrial and solar-system experiments will measure the effects of varying `constants' of Nature…
We consider a dynamical approach to the cosmological constant. There is a scalar field with a potential whose minimum occurs at a generic, but negative, value for the vacuum energy, and it has a non-standard kinetic term whose coefficient…
Examining the reverse evolution of the universe from the present, long before reaching Planck density dynamics one expects major modifications from the de-coherent thermal equations of state, suggesting a prior phase that has macroscopic…
We consider the ekpyrotic paradigm in the context of loop quantum cosmology. In loop quantum cosmology the classical big-bang singularity is resolved due to quantum gravity effects, and so the contracting ekpyrotic branch of the universe…