Related papers: A Briefing on the Ekpyrotic/Cyclic Universe
The theory of the inflationary multiverse changes the way we think about our place in the world. According to its most popular version, our world may consist of infinitely many exponentially large parts, exhibiting different sets of…
I review two cosmological paradigms which are alternative to the current inflationary scenario. The first alternative is the "matter bounce", a non-singular bouncing cosmology with a matter-dominated phase of contraction. The second is an…
The big bang model and the history of the early universe according to the grand unified theories are introduced. The shortcomings of big bang are discussed together with their resolution by inflationary cosmology. Inflation, the subsequent…
In these lectures the present status of the so-called standard cosmological model, based on the hot Big Bang theory and the inflationary paradigm is reviewed. Special emphasis is given to the origin of the cosmological perturbations we see…
Eternal inflation produces pocket universes with all physically allowed vacua and histories. Some of these pocket universes might contain a phase of slow-roll inflation, some might undergo cycles of cosmological evolution and some might…
Closed, singularity-free, inflationary cosmological models have recently been studied in the context of general relativity. Despite their appeal, these so called emergent models suffer from a number of limitations. These include the fact…
In infinitely cyclic cosmology past eras are discussed using set theory and transfinite numbers. One consistent scenario, already in the literature, is where there is always a countably infinite number, $\aleph_0$, of universes and no big…
A model for the Universe is proposed where it is considered as a mixture of scalar and matter fields. The particle production is due to an irreversible transfer of energy from the gravitational field to the matter field and represented by a…
This paper investigates the manner in which classical universes are obtained in the no-boundary quantum state. In this context, universes can be characterised as classical (in a WKB sense) when the wavefunction is highly oscillatory, i.e.…
Cosmological models with inflation and those with bounce have their own strengths and weaknesses. Here we construct a model in which a phase of bounce is followed by a viable inflationary phase. This incorporates several advantages of both…
The curvaton in an intermediate inflationary universe model is studied. This study has allowed us to find some interesting constraints on different parameters that appear in the model.
In this review I briefly describe the evolution of the inflationary theory from the scenario based on the idea of supercooling and expansion in the false vacuum toward the theory of eternally expanding self-reproducing inflationary…
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…
We consider a model of the Universe based on the equation of state $p=(1/3)\rho (c/F)^2$, where $F$ is the scale factor. This model behaves as an inflationary Universe from the beginning and during its early stages, and behaves as dust…
A large-scale smoothed-out model of the universe ignores small-scale inhomogeneities, but the averaged effects of those inhomogeneities may alter both observational and dynamical relations at the larger scale. This article discusses these…
In order to draw out the essential behavior of the universe, investigations of early universe cosmology often reduce the complex system to a simple integrable system. Inflationary models are of this kind as they focus on simple scalar field…
We propose a method to extract predictions from quantum cosmology for inflation that can be confronted with observations. Employing the tunneling boundary condition in quantum geometrodynamics, we derive a probability distribution for the…
A model of an emergent universe is obtained in brane world. Here the bulk energy is in the form of cosmological constant, while the brane consists of the Chaplygin gas with the modified equation of state such as $p=A\rho-B/\rho$. Initially…
We consider a model for an underpinning of the universe: there are oscillators at the Planck scale in the background dark energy. Starting from a coherent array of such oscillators it is possible to get a description from elementary…
I discuss, through a few examples, how observational cosmology can provide insights on hypothetical fundamental physics phenomena or mechanisms, such as Grand Unified Theory, Superstring alternatives to the inflation paradigm, and inflation…