Related papers: Has the Universe always expanded ?
It is shown here that a dynamical Planck mass can drive the scale factor of the universe to accelerate. The negative pressure which drives the cosmic acceleration is identified with the unusual kinetic energy density of the Planck field. No…
In this letter we review the separate universe approach for cosmological perturbations and point out that it is essentially the lowest order approximation to a gradient expansion. Using this approach, one can study the nonlinear evolution…
Motivated by recent claims stating that the acceleration of the present Universe is due to fluctuations with wavelength larger than the Hubble radius, we present a general analysis of various perturbative solutions of fully inhomogeneous…
The question of whether the universe is eternal or if it had a singular moment of creation is deeply intriguing. Although different versions of steady state and oscillatory models of eternal universe have been envisaged, empirical evidence…
Recent observations of the Universe have led to a conclusion suppressing an up-to-now supposed deceleration of the Universe caused by attractive gravitational forces. Contrary, there is a renaissance of the cosmological member lambda and…
Space-filling S-branes can mediate a transition between a contracting and an expanding universe in the Einstein frame. Following up on previous work that uncovered such bouncing solutions in the context of weakly coupled thermal…
A very simple non-singular inflationary model is presented where the unique matter content is a radiation fluid. The model slowly contracts from a very large, almost empty and flat spacetime and realizes a bounce. It is then launched to a…
We consider evolutions of linear fluctuations as the background Friedmann world model goes from contracting to expanding phases through smooth and non-singular bouncing phases. As long as the gravity dominates over the pressure gradient in…
We consider the fate of the observable universe in the light of the discovery of a dark energy component to the cosmic energy budget. We extend results for a cosmological constant to a general dark energy component and examine the…
We propose that at the beginning of the universe gravity existed in a limbo either because it was switched off or because it was only conformally coupled to all particles. This picture can be reverse-engineered from the requirement that the…
Using numerical solutions of the full Einstein field equations coupled to a scalar inflaton field in 3+1 dimensions, we study the conditions under which a universe that is initially expanding, highly inhomogeneous and dominated by gradient…
String-inspired cosmologies, whereby a non-singular curvature bounce is induced by a general-covariant, $T$-duality-invariant, non-local dilaton potential, are used to study numerically how inhomogeneities evolve and to compare the outcome…
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 consider certain aspects of cosmological dynamics of a spatially curved Universe in $f(T)$ gravity. Local analysis allows us to find conditions for bounces and for static solutions; these conditions appear to be in general less…
We present a short introduction to a non-standard cosmological scenario motivated by the duality symmetries of string theory, in which the big bang singularity is replaced with a "big bounce" at high but finite curvature. The bouncing epoch…
According to the inflationary scenario for the very early Universe, all inhomogeneities in the Universe are of genuine quantum origin. On the other hand, looking at these inhomogeneities and measuring them, clearly no specific quantum…
We investigate the emergence of cosmic hysteresis in cyclic bouncing cosmologies within the framework of $f(R)$ modified gravity theories. Building upon previous studies that explored hysteresis phenomena in braneworld and…
The purpose of the paper is five-fold: (a) Argue that the question in the title can be presented in a meaningful manner and that it requires an answer. (b) Discuss the conventional answers and explain why they are unsatisfactory. (c)…
The present paradigm in cosmology is the usual Big-Bang Cosmology in which two stages of accelerated expansion are incorporated: the inflationary phase in the very early universe which produces the classical inhomogeneities observed in the…
The early phase of cosmic evolution is still a great topic of interest to the cosmologist community. Especially the mechanism behind the origin of the Universe is yet to be resolved. Most people believe in the Big Bang models (singular…