Related papers: Quantum cosmological perturbations in bouncing mod…
A quantum cosmological bouncing model may exhibit an ambiguity stemming from the nonclassical nature of the background evolution: two classically equivalent theories can produce two qualitatively different potentials sourcing the…
We investigate cosmological scenarios containing one canonical scalar field with an exponential potential in the context of bouncing models, where the bounce happens due to quantum cosmological effects. The only possible bouncing solutions…
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…
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…
We calculate the power spectrum of vacuum fluctuations of a generic scalar field in a quantum cosmological setting that is manifestly singularity-free. The power spectrum is given in terms of the usual scale invariant spectrum plus scale…
We show that a contracting universe which bounces due to quantum cosmological effects and connects to the hot big-bang expansion phase, can produce an almost scale invariant spectrum of perturbations provided the perturbations are produced…
We study the cosmology of a Lee-Wick type scalar field theory. First, we consider homogeneous and isotropic background solutions and find that they are nonsingular, leading to cosmological bounces. Next, we analyze the spectrum of…
We review matter bounce scenarios where the matter content is dark matter and dark energy. These cosmologies predict a nearly scale-invariant power spectrum with a slightly red tilt for scalar perturbations and a small tensor-to-scalar…
Bouncing cosmologies, suggested by String/M-theory, may provide an alternative to standard inflation to account for the origin of inhomogeneities in our universe. The fundamental question regards the correct way to evolve the scalar…
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…
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 propose a new cosmological paradigm in which our observed expanding phase is originated from an initially large contracting Universe that subsequently experienced a bounce. This category of models, being geodesically complete, is…
We compute the spectral distribution of the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum, amplified by inflation, after an arbitrary number of background transitions. Using a graphic representation of the process we find that the final spectrum can…
We use general arguments to examine the energy scales for which a quantum coherent description of gravitating quantum energy units is necessary. The cosmological dark energy density is expected to decouple from the Friedman-Lemaitre energy…
We consider minimal extensions of the recently proposed Mimetic Dark Matter and show that by introducing a potential for the mimetic non-dynamical scalar field we can mimic nearly any gravitational properties of the normal matter. In…
Bouncing models of cosmology, as they arise e.g. in loop quantum cosmology, can be followed by an inflationary phase and generate close-to-scale-invariant fluctuation spectra as observed in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). However,…
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…
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in a non-singular bouncing cosmology with a bounce phase which has superimposed oscillations of the scale factor. We identify length scales for which the final spectrum of fluctuations…
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…
We present a bouncing cosmology which evolves from the contracting to the expanding phase in a smooth way, without developing instabilities or pathologies and remaining in the regime of validity of 4d effective field theory. A nearly scale…