Related papers: Birth of the Universe in string cosmology
We show that, in the presence of a string gas, simple higher-derivative modifications to the effective action for gravity can lead to bouncing and cyclic cosmological models. The modifications bound the expansion rate and avoid…
An introduction to modern cosmology is given, focusing on theories for the origin of structure in the Universe. After a brief review of the theory of growth of cosmological perturbations and a summary of some important observational…
False vacuum decay typically proceeds via the nucleation of spherical bubbles of true vacuum, described by $O(4)$ symmetric field configurations in Euclidean time. In this work, we investigate how the presence of cosmic strings can catalyze…
Topological defects, in particular cosmic strings, give rise to an interesting mechanism for generating the primordial perturbations in the early Universe which are required to explain the present structure. An overview of the cosmic string…
We consider $f(R,T)$ modified theories of gravity in the context of string theory inspired dilaton gravity. We deal with a specific model that under certain conditions describes the late time Universe in accord with observational data in…
This paper examines two cosmological models of quantum gravity (from string theory and loop quantum gravity) to investigate the foundational and conceptual issues arising from quantum treatments of the big bang. While the classical…
In gravitational theories with extra dimensions, it is argued that the existence of a positive vacuum energy generically implies catastrophic instability of our four-dimensional world. The most generic instability is a decompactification…
We compute spectra of particles produced during a dilaton-driven kinetic inflation phase within string cosmology models. The resulting spectra depend on the parameters of the model and on the type of particle and are quite varied, some…
We point out that the (pseudo-)conformal Universe scenario may be realized as decay of conformally invariant, metastable vacuum, which proceeds via spontaneous nucleation and subsequent growth of a bubble of a putative new phase. We study…
We discuss general features of the $\beta$-function equations for spatially flat, $(d+1)$-dimensional cosmological backgrounds at lowest order in the string-loop expansion, but to all orders in $\alpha'$. In the special case of constant…
It is stressed that the kinematical problems of the standard cosmological model can be solved by a phase of accelerated contraction of the cosmic scale factor. Such a behaviour is only a particular case of a more general ``pre-big-bang"…
The theory of cosmological perturbations has become a cornerstone of modern quantitative cosmology since it is the framework which provides the link between the models of the very early Universe such as the inflationary Universe scenario…
A time-varying cosmological "constant" Lambda is consistent with Einstein's equation, provided matter and/or radiation is created or destroyed to compensate for it. Supposing an empty primordial universe endowed with a very large…
These lectures present a brief review of inflationary cosmology, provide an overview of the theory of cosmological perturbations, and then focus on the conceptual problems of the current paradigm of early universe cosmology, thus motivating…
We consider a non singular origin for the Universe starting from an Einstein static Universe in the framework of a theory which uses two volume elements $\sqrt{-{g}}d^{4}x$ and $\Phi d^{4}x$, where $\Phi $ is a metric independent density,…
Universe history in $R^2$-gravity is studied from "beginning" up to the present epoch. It is assumed that initially the curvature scalar $R$ was sufficiently large to induce the proper duration of inflation. Gravitational particle…
Gravitation is described in the context of a dilatonic theory that is conformally related to general relativity. All dimensionless ratios of fundamental dimensional quantities, e.g. particle masses and the Planck mass, as well as the…
We study the evolution of the universe which contains a multiple number of non-relativistic scalar fields decaying into both radiation and pressureless matter. We present a powerful analytic formalism to calculate the matter and radiation…
In this work we propose a new general model of eternal cyclic Universe. We start from the assumption that quantum gravity corrections can be effectively accounted by the addition of higher order curvature terms in the Lagrangian density for…
The ekpyrotic and cyclic universe scenarios have revived the idea that the density perturbations apparent in today's universe could have been generated in a `pre-singularity' epoch before the big bang. These scenarios provide explicit…