Despite impressive phenomenological successes, cosmological models are incomplete without an understanding of what happened at the big bang singularity. Depending on the model, one would like to understand how appropriate initial conditions were selected at the big bang singularity, or how a pre-existing contracting universe underwent a big crunch/big bang transition, if such transitions are possible at all. In this talk, after an introduction to these questions, an attempt is described to study cosmological singularities using the AdS/CFT correspondence. A specific model in which asymptotically AdS initial data evolve into a big crunch singularity is discussed and a dual field theory description is provided.
We propose a new cosmological scenario which resolves the conventional initial singularity problem. The space-time geometry has an unconventional time-like singularity on a lower dimensional hypersurface, with localized energy density. The natural interpretation of this singularity in string theory is that of negative tension branes, for example the orientifolds of type II string theory. Space-time ends at the orientifolds, and it is divided in three regions: a contracting region with a future cosmological horizon; an intermediate region which ends at the orientifols; and an expanding region s…
The talk at international conference in honor of Ya. B. Zeldovich 95th Anniversary, Minsk, Belarus, April 2009. The talk represents a review of the old results and contemporary development on the problem of cosmological singularity.
We investigate Bianchi I cosmological model in the theory of a dilatonM field coupled to gravity through a Gauss-Bonnet term. Two type ofM cosmological singularity are distinguished. The former is analogous toM the Einstein gravity singularity, the latter (which does not appear inM classical General Relativity) occurs when the main determinant of theM system of field equations vanishes. An analogy between the latterM cosmological singularity and the singularity inside a black hole withM a dilatonic hair is discussed. Initial conditions, leading to theseM two types of cosmological singularity a…
It has recently been argued that the singularity of the Milne orbifold can be resolved in higher spin theories. In string theory scattering amplitudes, however, the Milne singularity gives rise to ultraviolet divergences that signal uncontrolled backreaction. Since string theory in the low tension limit is expected to be a higher spin theory (although precise proposals only exist in special cases), we investigate what happens to these scattering amplitudes in the low tension limit. We point out that the known problematic ultraviolet divergences disappear in this limit. In addition we systemati…
We explore bosonic strings and Type II superstrings in the simplest time dependent backgrounds, namely orbifolds of Minkowski space by time reversal and some spatial reflections. We show that there are no negative norm physical excitations. However, the contributions of negative norm virtual states to quantum loops do not cancel, showing that a ghost-free gauge cannot be chosen. The spectrum includes a twisted sector, with strings confined to a ``conical'' singularity which is localized in time. Since these localized strings are not visible to asymptotic observers, interesting issues arise reg…
We study the cosmological solutions of the one loop corrected superstring effective action, in a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker background, and in the presence of the dilaton and modulus fields. A particularly interesting class of solutions is found which avoid the initial singularity and are consistent with the perturbative treatment of the effective action.
We study the evolution of holographic complexity in various AdS/CFT models containing cosmological crunch singularities. We find that a notion of complexity measured by extremal bulk volumes tends to decrease as the singularity is approached in CFT time, suggesting that the corresponding quantum states have simpler entanglement structure at the singularity.
We study Big-Bang or -Crunch cosmological singularities in 2-dimensional dilaton-gravity-scalar theories, in general obtained by dimensional reduction of higher dimensional theories. The dilaton potential encodes information about the asymptotic data defining the theories, and encompasses various families such as flat space, $AdS$, conformally $AdS$ as arising from nonconformal branes, and more general nonrelativistic theories. We find a kind of universal near singularity behaviour independent of the dilaton potential, giving universal interrelations between the exponents defining the time beh…
We construct cosmological spacetimes with null Kasner-like singularities as purely gravitational solutions with no other background fields turned on. These can be recast as anisotropic plane-wave spacetimes by coordinate transformations. We analyse string quantization to find the spectrum of string modes in these backgrounds. The classical string modes can be solved for exactly in these time-dependent backgrounds, which enables a detailed study of the near singularity string spectrum, (time-dependent) oscillator masses and wavefunctions. We find that for low lying string modes(finite oscillati…
Problem of cosmological singularity is discussed in the framework of gauge theories of gravitation. Generalizing cosmological Friedmann equations (GCFE) for homogeneous isotropic models including scalar fields and usual gravitating matter are introduced. It is shown that by certain restrictions on equation of state of gravitating matter and indefinite parameter of GCFE generic feature of inflationary cosmological models of flat, open and closed type is their regular bouncing character.
We study aspects of entanglement and extremal surfaces in various families of spacetimes exhibiting cosmological, Big-Crunch, singularities, in particular isotropic $AdS$ Kasner. The classical extremal surface dips into the bulk radial and time directions. Explicitly analysing the extremization equations in the semiclassical region far from the singularity, we find the surface bends in the direction away from the singularity. In the 2-dim cosmologies obtained by dimensional reduction of these and other singularities, we have studied quantum extremal surfaces by extremizing the generalized entr…
The standard $Λ$CDM model despite its agreement with observational data still has some issues unaddressed, lie the problem of initial singularity. Solving that problem usually requires modifications of general relativity. However, there appeared the Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) theory of gravity, in which equations governing cosmological evolution include a new term scaling similarly as dark radiation term in the Friedmann equations, enabling a bounce of the universe instead of initial singularity. This review describes past works on a stability of such a bounce in different formulations of HL theory,…
We explore the fate of the curvature singularity of Schwarzschild (deSitter) black holes in asymptotically safe quantum gravity. Specifically, we upgrade the classical spacetime by including the running of the Newton coupling and cosmological constant. In this setting, the antiscreening character of the gravitational interaction can remove the singularity, yet a nonzero value of the cosmological constant in the ultraviolet appears to reintroduce it. We find hints that a finite value of the cosmological constant in the infrared is compatible with singularity resolution provided that the cosmolo…
We compute string scattering amplitudes in an orbifold of Minkowski space by a boost, and show how certain divergences in the four point function are associated with graviton exchange near the singularity. These divergences reflect large tree-level backreaction of the gravitational field. Near the singularity, all excitations behave like massless fields on a 1+1 dimensional cylinder. For excitations that are chiral near the singularity, we show that divergences are avoided and that the backreaction is milder. We discuss the implications of this for some cosmological spacetimes. Finally, in ord…
Our results concern the transition of a quantum string through the singularity of the compactified Milne (CM) space. We restrict our analysis to the string winding around the compact dimension (CD) of spacetime. The CD undergoes contraction to a point followed by re-expansion. We demonstrate that both classical and quantum dynamics of considered string are well defined. Most of presently available calculations strongly suggest that the singularity of a time dependent orbifold is useless as a model of the cosmological singularity. We believe that our results bring, to some extent, this claim in…
We study stability of singularity-free cosmological solutions with positive cosmological constant based on projectable Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) theory. In HL theory, the isotropic and homogeneous cosmological solutions with bounce can be realized if spacial curvature is non-zero. By performing perturbation analysis around non-flat Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetime, we derive a quadratic action and discuss the stability, i.e, ghost and tachyon-free conditions. Although the squared effective mass of scalar perturbation must be negative in infrared regime, we can avoid tachyon inst…
An extension of Penrose's singularity theorem is proved for spacetimes where black holes are allowed to form from non-singular initial data. With standard assumptions about the spacetime, and assuming the existence of a trapped surface which lies outside of black hole horizons and is not completely surrounded by horizons, we show that the spacetime region outside (or on) the horizons must contain singularities. If the trapped surface is surrounded by horizons, we show that the horizons divide spacetime into causally disconnected pieces. Unlike the original Penrose's theorem, our theorems provi…
In this paper, we will show that the equations of motion of the quadratic in curvature, ghost free, infinite derivative theory of gravity will not permit an anisotropic collapse of a homogeneous Universe for a Kasner-type vacuum solution.
For models of gravity coupled to hyperbolic sigma models, such as the metric-scalar sector of IIB supergravity, we show how smooth trajectories in the `augmented target space' connect FLRW cosmologies to non-extremal D-instantons through a cosmological singularity. In particular, we find closed cyclic universes that undergo an endless sequence of big-bang to big-crunch cycles separated by instanton `phases'. We also find `big-bounce' universes in which a collapsing closed universe bounces off its cosmological singularity to become an open expanding universe.
We study a quantum Hot Big Bang in the connection representation, with a matter constant of motion m whose conjugate defines time. Superpositions in m induce a unitary inner product. The wavefunction reveals a resolution of the singularity problem without new physics or supplementary boundary conditions. Backtracking in time, the probability peak eventually halts at a maximum curvature, its height dropping thereafter while a symmetric contracting peak rises. The Big Bang is replaced by a superposition of contracting and expanding regular Universes. We contrast these findings with the situation…
In the sigma model approach, the $β$-function equations for non critical strings contain a term which acts like a tree level cosmological constant, $Λ$. We analyse the static, spherically symmetric solutions to these equations in $d = 4$ space time and show that the curvature scalar seen by the strings is singular if $Λ\ne 0$. This singularity is naked. Requiring its absence in our universe imposes the constraint $| Λ| < 10^{- 120}$ in natural units. {}From another point of view, our analysis implies that low energy $d = 4$ non critical strings lead to naked singularities.
We generalize the action for point particle motion to a double field theory background. After deriving the general equations of motion for these particle geodesics, we specialize to the case of a cosmological background with vanishing antisymmetric tensor field and constant dilaton. We then show that the geodesics can be extended to infinity in both time directions once we define the appropriate physical clock. Following this prescription, we also show the existence of a singularity-free cosmological solution.
Dynamical systems methods are used to investigate cosmological model with non-minimally coupled scalar field. Existence of an asymptotically unstable de Sitter state distinguishes values of the non-minimal coupling constant parameter $\frac{3}{16}\leξ<\frac{1}{4}$, which correspond to conformal coupling in higher dimensional theories of gravity.
The quasi-isotropic inhomogeneous solution of the Einstein equations near a cosmological singularity in the form of a series expansion in the synchronous system of reference, first found by Lifshitz and Khalatnikov in 1960, is generalized to the case of a two-fluid cosmological model. This solution describes non-decreasing modes of adiabatic and isocurvature scalar perturbations and gravitational waves in the regime when deviations of a space-time metric from the homogeneous isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) background are large while locally measurable quantities like Riemann tensor …
We examine the transition of a particle across the singularity of the compactified Milne (CM) space. Quantization of the phase space of a particle and testing the quantum stability of its dynamics are consistent to one another. One type of transition of a quantum particle is described by a quantum state that is continuous at the singularity. It indicates the existence of a deterministic link between the propagation of a particle before and after crossing the singularity. Regularization of the CM space leads to the dynamics similar to the dynamics in the de Sitter space. The CM space is a promi…
We tudy flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology in Brans-Dicke-type theories of gravitation with minimal coupling between the scalar field and the matter fields in the Einstein frame (general relativity with an extra scalar field) for arbitrary values of the Brans-Dicke parameter $ω>-{3/2}$. It is shown that the cosmological singularity occuring in the Einstein frame formulation of this theory is removed in the Jordan frame in the range $-{3/2}<ω<\leq-{4/3}$. This result is interpreted in the ligth of a viewpoint (first presented in reference gr-qc/9905071) asserting that both Jordan frame a…
We study cosmological solutions to the low-energy effective action of heterotic string theory including possible leading order $α'$ corrections and a potential for the dilaton. We consider the possibility that including such stringy corrections can resolve the initial cosmological singularity. Since the exact form of these corrections is not known the higher-derivative terms are constructed so that they vanish when the metric is de Sitter spacetime. The constructed terms are compatible with known restrictions from scattering amplitude and string worldsheet beta-function calculations. Analytic …
We study brane cosmology as 4D (4-dimensional) domain wall dynamics in 5D bulk spacetime. For a generic 5D bulk with 3D maximal symmetry, we derive the equation of motion of a domain wall and find that it depends on mass function of the bulk spacetime and the energy-momentum conservation in a domain wall is affected by a lapse function in the bulk. Especially, for a bulk spacetime with non-trivial lapse function, energy of matter field on the domain wall goes out or comes in from the bulk spacetime. Applying our result to the case with SU(2) gauge bulk field, we obtain a singularity-free unive…
We study a general field theory of a scalar field coupled to gravity through a quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term $ξ(ϕ) R^2_{GB}$. The coupling function has the form $ξ(ϕ)=ϕ^n$, where $n$ is a positive integer. In the absence of the Gauss-Bonnet term, the cosmological solutions for an empty universe and a universe dominated by the energy-momentum tensor of a scalar field are always characterized by the occurrence of a true cosmological singularity. By employing analytical and numerical methods, we show that, in the presence of the quadratic Gauss-Bonnet term, for the dual case of even $n$, the set of…
Alternative scenarios to the Big Bang singularity have been subject of intense research for several decades by now. Most popular in this sense have been frameworks were such singularity is replaced by a bounce around some minimal cosmological volume or by some early quantum phase. This latter scenario was devised a long time ago and referred as an "emergent universe" (in the sense that our universe emerged from a constant volume quantum phase). We show here that within an improved framework of canonical quantum gravity (the so called Quantum Reduced Loop Gravity) the Friedmann equations for co…
One of the greatest problems of standard cosmology is the Big Bang singularity. Previously it has been shown that non-local ghostfree higher-derivative modifications of Einstein gravity in the ultra-violet regime can admit non-singular bouncing solutions. In this paper we study in more details the dynamical properties of the equations of motion for these theories of gravity in presence of positive and negative cosmological constants and radiation. We find stable inflationary attractor solutions in the presence of a positive cosmological constant which renders inflation {\it geodesically comple…
In the recently proposed cosmological constant (CC) filter mechanism based on modified gravity in the Palatini formalism, gravity in the radiation, matter and late-time de Sitter eras is insensitive to energy sources with the equation of state -1. This implies that finite vacuum energy shifts from phase transitions are filtered out, too. In this work we investigate the CC filter model at very early times. We find that the initial big bang singularity is replaced by a cosmic bounce, where the matter energy density and the curvature are finite. In a certain case this finiteness can be observed a…
The Affine Coherent State Quantization procedure is applied to the case of a FRLW universe in the presence of a cosmological constant. The quantum corrections alter the dynamics of the system in the semiclassical regime, providing a potential barrier term which avoids all classical singularities, as already suggested in other models studied in the literature. Furthermore the quantum corrections are responsible for an accelerated cosmic expansion. This work intends to explore some of the implications of the recently proposed "Enhanced Quantization" procedure in a simplified model of cosmology.
We provide a novel mechanism that resolves the Big Bang Singularity present in FRW space-times without the need for ghost fields. Building on the fact that a four-fermion interaction arises in General Relativity when fermions are covariantly coupled, we show that at early times the decrease in scale factor enhances the correlation between pairs of fermions. This enhancement leads to a BCS-like condensation of the fermions and opens a gap dynamically driving the Hubble parameter $H$ to zero and results in a non-singular bounce, at least in some special cases.
We study the stability of the isotropic vacuum Friedmann universe in gravity theories with higher-order curvature terms of the form $(R_{ab}R^{ab})^{n}$ added to the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian of general relativity on approach to an initial cosmological singularity. Earlier, we had shown that, when $% n=1$, a special isotropic vacuum solution exists which behaves like the radiation-dominated Friedmann universe and is stable to anisotropic and small inhomogeneous perturbations of scalar, vector and tensor type. This is completely different to the situation that holds in general relativity, whe…
We study the resolution of certain cosmological singularity in the context of higher-spin three-dimensional gravity. We consider gravity coupled to a spin-3 field realized as Chern-Simons theory with gauge group $SL(3,\mathbb{C})$. In this context we elaborate and extend a singularity resolution scheme proposed by Krishnan and Roy. We discuss the resolution of a big-bang singularity in the case of gravity coupled to a spin-4 field realized as Chern-Simons theory with gauge group $SL(4,\mathbb{C})$. In all these cases we show the existence of gauge transformations that do not change the holonom…
We discuss the asymptotic dynamical evolution of spatially homogeneous brane-world cosmological models close to the initial singularity. We find that generically the cosmological singularity is isotropic in Bianchi type IX brane-world models and consequently these models do not exhibit Mixmaster or chaotic-like behaviour close to the initial singularity. We argue that this is typical of more general cosmological models in the brane-world scenario. In particular, we show that an isotropic singularity is a past-attractor in all orthogonal Bianchi models and is a local past-attractor in a class o…
In certain string inspired higher dimensional cosmological models it has been conjectured that there is generic, chaotic oscillating behavior near the initial singularity -- the Kasner parameters which characterize the asymptotic form of the metric "jump" between different, locally constant values and exhibit a never-ending oscillation as one approaches the singularity. In this paper we investigate a class of cosmological solutions with form fields and diagonal metrics which have a "maximal" number of composite electric S-branes. We look at two explicit examples in D=4 and D=5 dimensions that …
We find stable singularity-free cosmological solutions in non-flat Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) spacetime in the context of Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) theory. Although we encounter the negative squared effective masses of the scalar perturbations in the original HL theory, the behaviors can be remedied by relaxing the projectability condition. In our analysis, the effects from the background dynamics are taken into account as well as the sign of the coefficients in the quadratic action for perturbations. More specifically, we give further classification of the gradient stability/instab…
Close to a spacelike singularity, pure gravity and supergravity in four to eleven spacetime dimensions admit a cosmological billiard description based on hyperbolic Kac-Moody groups. We investigate the quantum cosmological billiards of relativistic wavepackets towards the singularity, employing flat and hyperbolic space descriptions for the quantum billiards. We find that the strongly chaotic classical billiard motion of four-dimensional pure gravity corresponds to a spreading wavepacket subject to successive redshifts and tending to zero as the singularity is approached. We discuss the possib…
We show that generically the initial singularity is isotropic in spatially homogeneous cosmological models in the brane-world scenario. We then argue that it is plausible that the initial singularity is isotropic in typical brane world cosmological models. Therefore, brane cosmology naturally gives rise to a set of initial data that provide the conditions for inflation to subsequently take place, thereby solving the initial conditions problem and leading to a self--consistent and viable cosmology.
An alternative to the Big Bang cosmologies is obtained by the Big Bounce cosmologies. In this paper, we study a bounce cosmology with a Type IV singularity occurring at the bouncing point, in the context of $F(R)$ modified gravity. We investigate the evolution of the Hubble radius and we examine the issue of primordial cosmological perturbations in detail. As we demonstrate, for the singular bounce, the primordial perturbations originating from the cosmological era near the bounce, do not produce a scale invariant spectrum and also the short wavelength modes, after these exit the horizon, do n…
D=11 Supergravity near a space-like singularity admits a cosmological billiard description based on the hyperbolic Kac-Moody group E10. The quantization of this system via the supersymmetry constraint is shown to lead to wavefunctions involving automorphic (Maass wave) forms under the modular group W^+(E10)=PSL(2,O) with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the billiard domain. A general inequality for the Laplace eigenvalues of these automorphic forms implies that the wave function of the universe is generically complex and always tends to zero when approaching the initial singularity. We discuss…
We briefly review the problem of generating cosmological flows of matter in GR (the genesis of universes), analyze models' shortcomings and their basic assumptions yet to be justified in physical cosmology. We propose a paradigm of cosmogenesis based on the class of spherically symmetric solutions with {\it integrable} singularity $r=0$. They allow for geodesically complete geometries of black/white holes, which may comprise space-time regions with properties of cosmological flows.
We consider different aspects of the problem of cosmological singularity such as the BKL oscillatory approach to singularity, the new features of the cosmological dynamics in the neighbourhood of the singularity in multidimensional and superstring cosmological models and their connections with such a modern branch of mathematics as infinite-dimensional Lie algebras. Besides, we consider some new types of cosmological singularities which were widely discussed during last decade after the discovery of the phenomenon of cosmic acceleration.
We consider the Wheeler-DeWitt equation $Hψ=0$ in a suitable Hilbert space. It turns out that this equation has countably many solutions $ψ_i$ which can be considered as eigenfunctions of a Hamilton operator implicitly defined by $H$. We consider two models, a bounded one, $0<r<r_0$, and an unbounded, $0<r<\un$, which represent different eigenvalue problems. In the bounded model we look for eigenvalues $\Lam_i$, where the $\Lam_i$ are the values of the cosmological constant which we used in the Einstein-Hilbert functional, and in the unbounded model the eigenvalues are given by $(-\Lam_i)^{-\f…
Recently a new type of cosmological singularity has been postulated for infinite barotropic index $w$ in the equation of state $p=w ρ$ of the cosmological fluid, but vanishing pressure and density at the singular event. Apparently the barotropic index $w$ would be the only physical quantity to blow up at the singularity. In this talk we would like to discuss the strength of such singularities and compare them with other types. We show that they are weak singularities.
We present a class of cosmological solutions for a generalized teleparallel gravity with, $f(T)=T+\tildeα(-T)^n$, where $\tildeα$ is some parameter and $n$ is an integer or half-integer. Choosing $\tildeα \sim G^{n-1}$, where $G$ is the gravitational constant, and working with an equation of state $p=w\, ρ$, one obtains a cosmological solution with multiple branches. The dynamics of the solution describes standard cosmology at late times, but the higher-torsion correction changes the nature of the initial singularity from big bang to a sudden singularity. The milder behavior of the sudden sing…
We study the evolution of cosmological perturbations in an anti-de-Sitter (AdS) bulk through a cosmological singularity by mapping the dynamics onto the boundary conformal fields theory by means of the AdS/CFT correspondence. We consider a deformed AdS space-time obtained by considering a time-dependent dilaton which induces a curvature singularity in the bulk at a time which we call $t = 0$, and which asymptotically approaches AdS both for large positive and negative times. The boundary field theory becomes free when the bulk curvature goes to infinity. Hence, the evolution of the fluctuation…
We investigate a curvature singularity appearing in the star collapse process in $F(R)$ gravity. In particular, we propose an understanding of the mechanism to produce the curvature singularity. Moreover, we explicitly demonstrate that $R^α$ ($1 < α\leq 2$) term addition could cure the curvature singularity and viable $F(R)$ gravity models could become free of such a singularity. Furthermore, we discuss the realization process of the curvature singularity and estimate the time scale of its appearance. For exponential gravity, it is shown that in case of the star collapse, the time scale is muc…
Non-singular Bianchi type I solutions are found from the effective action with a superstring-motivated Gauss-Bonnet term. These anisotropic non-singular solutions evolve from the asymptotic Minkowski region, subsequently super-inflate, and then smoothly continue either to Kasner-type (expanding in two directions and shrinking in one direction) or to Friedmann-type (expanding in all directions) solutions. We also found a new kind of singularity which arises from the fact that the anisotropic expansion rates are multiple-valued function of time. The initial singularity in the isotropic limit of …
Multidimensional cosmological-type model with n Einstein factor spaces in the theory with l scalar fields and multiple exponential potential is considered. The dynamics of the model near the singularity is reduced to a billiard on the (N-1)-dimensional Lobachevsky space H^{N-1}, N = n+l. It is shown that for n > 1 the oscillating behaviour near the singularity is absent and solutions have an asymptotical Kasner-like behavior. For the case of one scale factor (n =1) billiards with finite volumes (e.g. coinciding with that of the Bianchi-IX model) are described and oscillating behaviour of scala…
The spacetime inside the white hole is like an anisotropic cosmological background with the past singularity playing the role of a big bang singularity. The scale factor along the extended spatial direction is contracting while the scale factor along the two-sphere is expanding. We consider an eternal Schwarzschild manifold and study quantum cosmological perturbations generated near the white hole singularity which propagate towards the past event horizon and to exterior of the black hole. It is shown that an observer deep inside the white hole and an observer far outside the black hole both s…
