Related papers: Assisted Contraction
We study cosmological perturbations produced by the most general two-derivative actions involving two scalar fields, coupled to Einstein gravity, with an arbitrary field space metric, that admit scaling solutions. For contracting universes,…
We derive general analytic formulae for the power spectrum and spectral index of the curvature perturbation produced during inflation driven by a multi-component inflaton field, up to the second order in the slow-roll approximation. We do…
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 consider a cosmological scenario in which a scale-invariant spectrum of curvature perturbations is generated by a rapidly-evolving equation of state on a slowly expanding background. This scenario generalizes the "adiabatic ekpyrotic"…
In Pre-Big-Bang and in Ekpyrotic Cosmology, perturbations on cosmological scales today are generated from quantum vacuum fluctuations during a phase when the Universe is contracting (viewed in the Einstein frame). The backgrounds studied to…
We consider the evolution of perturbed cosmological spacetime with multiple scalar fields in Einstein gravity. A complete set of scalar-type perturbation equations is presented in a gauge-ready form, and we derived the closed set of…
In general, for single field, the scale invariant spectrum of curvature perturbation can be given by either its constant mode or its increasing mode. We show that during slowly expanding or contracting, the spectrum of curvature…
We investigate the dynamics of the recently proposed model of assisted inflation. In this model an arbitrary number of scalar fields with exponential potentials evolve towards an inflationary scaling solution, even if each of the individual…
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 perform a detailed investigation of the simplest possible cosmological model in which a bounce can occur, namely that where the dynamics is led by a simple massive scalar field in a general self-interacting potential and a background…
I show that cosmological perturbation spectra produced from quantum fluctuations in massless or self-interacting scalar fields during an inflationary era remain invariant under a two parameter family of transformations of the homogeneous…
In inflationary scenarios with more than one scalar field, inflation may proceed even if each of the individual fields has a potential too steep for that field to sustain inflation on its own. We show that scalar fields with exponential…
Ekpyrotic bouncing cosmologies have been proposed as alternatives to inflation. In these scenarios, the universe is smoothed and flattened during a period of slow contraction preceding the bounce while quantum fluctuations generate nearly…
The entropic mechanism for producing nearly scale-invariant density perturbations in a contracting ekpyrotic universe relies on having an unstable scalar potential. Here we develop a variant of this mechanism (recently proposed by Qiu, Gao…
A scale-invariant spectrum of isocurvature perturbations is generated during collapse in the ekpyrotic scaling solution in models where multiple fields have steep negative exponential potentials. The scale invariance of the spectrum is…
The scalar field with an exponential potential allows a scaling solution where the the density of the field follows the density of the dominating fluid. Such a scaling regime is often used as an important ingredient in many models of…
We explore the dynamics of assisted quintessence, where more than one scalar field is present with the same potential. For potentials with tracking solutions, the fields naturally approach the same values; in the context of inflation this…
Several scenarios have been proposed in which primordial perturbations could originate from quantum vacuum fluctuations in a phase corresponding to a collapse phase (in an Einstein frame) preceding the Big Bang. I briefly review three…
We complement the low-energy gravi-dilaton effective action of string theory with a non-local, general-covariant dilaton potential, and obtain homogeneous solutions describing a non-singular (bouncing-curvature) cosmology. We then compute,…
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…