The scale factor duality is a symmetry of dilaton gravity which is known to lead to pre-big-bang cosmologies. A conformal time version of the scale factor duality (SFD) was recently implemented as a UV/IR symmetry between decelerated and accelerated phases of the post-big-bang evolution within Einstein gravity coupled to a scalar field. The problem investigated in the present paper concerns the employment of the conformal time SFD methods to the construction of pre-big-bang and cyclic extensions of these models. We demonstrate that each big-bang model gives rise to two qualitatively different pre-big-bang evolutions: a contraction/expansion SFD model and Penrose's Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC). A few examples of SFD symmetric cyclic universes involving certain gauged Kähler sigma models minimally coupled to Einstein gravity are studied. We also describe the specific SFD features of the thermodynamics and the conditions for validity of the generalized second law in the case of Gauss-Bonnet (GB) extension of these selected CCC models.
Penrose limits of inhomogeneous cosmologies admitting two abelian Killing vectors and their abelian T-duals are found in general. The wave profiles of the resulting plane waves are given for particular solutions. Abelian and non-abelian T-duality are used as solution generating techniques. Furthermore, it is found that unlike in the case of abelian T-duality, non-abelian T-duality and taking the Penrose limit are not commutative procedures.
We analyse spacetimes with a conformal scalar field source, a cosmological constant and a quartic self-interaction term for the scalar field. We also consider additional matter contents in the form of Maxwell and Yang-Mills fields or radiation fluids. Existence theorems for weakly asymptotically flat spacetimes are given. We give a generalisation of Bekenstein's result [Ann. Phys. 82, 535 (1974)] and use it to derive existence theorems for spacetimes that contain an isotropic singularity. The results are combined to suggest a mathematical setup for Penrose's CCC scenario using a conformal scal…
The no-boundary proposal provides a compelling theory for the initial conditions of our universe. We study the implications of such initial conditions for ekpyrotic and cyclic cosmologies. These cosmologies allow for the existence of a new type of "ekpyrotic instanton", which describes the creation of a universe in the ekpyrotic contraction phase. Remarkably, we find that the ekpyrotic attractor can explain how the universe became classical. In a cyclic context, in addition to the ekpyrotic instantons there exist de Sitter-like instantons describing the emergence of the universe in the dark en…
In a cyclic entropy model in which the extroverse is jettisoned at turnaround with a Come Back Empty assumption, we address matching of the contraction scale factor $f(t_T)a(t)$ to the expansion scale factor $a(t)$, where $f(t_T)$ is the ratio at turnaround of the introverse to extroverse radii. Such matching is necessary for infinite cyclicity and fixes the CBE period at $\sim 2.6$ Ty. We then compare such a CBE model with alternative cyclic cosmologies including Penrose Conformal Cyclic Cosmology of period $10^{100}$ y, and speculate that the CBE model may be related to the CCC model by a hi…
The concept of scale factor duality is considered within the context of the spatially homogeneous, vacuum Brans-Dicke cosmologies. In the Bianchi class A, it is found that duality symmetries exist for the types I, II, VI_0, VII_0, but not for types VIII and IX. The Kantowski-Sachs and locally rotationally symmetric Bianchi type III models also exhibit a scale factor duality, but no such symmetries are found for the Bianchi type V. In this way anisotropy and spatial curvature may have important effects on the nature of such dualities.
We investigate the post-bounce background dynamics in a certain class of single bounce scenarios studied in the literature, in which the cosmic bounce is driven by a scalar field with negative exponential potential such as the ekpyrotic potential. We show that those models can actually lead to cyclic evolutions with repeated bounces. These cyclic evolutions, however, do not account for the currently observed late-time accelerated expansion and hence are not cosmologically viable. In this respect we consider a new kind of cyclic model proposed recently and derive some cosmological constraints o…
Poisson-Lie T-duality and plurality are important solution generating techniques in string theory and (generalized) supergravity. Since duality/plurality does not preserve conformal invariance, the usual beta function equations are replaced by Generalized Supergravity Equations containing vector $\mathcal{J}$. In this paper we apply Poisson-Lie T-plurality on Bianchi cosmologies. We present a formula for the vector $\mathcal{J}$ as well as transformation rule for dilaton, and show that plural backgrounds together with this dilaton and $\mathcal{J}$ satisfy the Generalized Supergravity Equation…
In this work we investigate the duality linking standard and tachyon scalar field cosmologies. We determine the transformation between standard and tachyon scalar fields and between their associated potentials, corresponding to the same background evolution. We show that, in general, the duality is broken at a perturbative level, when deviations from a homogeneous and isotropic background are taken into account. However, we find that for slow-rolling fields the duality is still preserved at a linear level. We illustrate our results with specific examples of cosmological relevance, where the co…
It is shown that any spatially flat and isotropic universe undergoing accelerated expansion driven by a self-interacting scalar field can be directly related to a contracting, decelerating cosmology. The duality is made manifest by expressing the scale factor and Hubble parameter as functions of the scalar field and simultaneously interchanging these two quantities. The decelerating universe can be twinned with a cosmology sourced by a phantom scalar field by inverting the scale factor and leaving the Hubble parameter invariant. The accelerating model can be related to the same phantom univers…
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 singularities at finite times. In these models the scale factors can have long loitering phases that solve the horizon problem. Adding a potential for the dilaton gives a simple realization of the pre-big bang scenario. Entropy production in the cyclic phase drives an eventual transition to a radiation-dominated universe. As a test of the Brandenberger-Vafa scenario, we…
We consider toy cosmological models in which a classical, homogeneous, spinor field provides a dominant or sub-dominant contribution to the energy-momentum tensor of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We find that, if such a field were to exist, appropriate choices of the spinor self-interaction would generate a rich variety of behaviors, quite different from their widely studied scalar field counterparts. We first discuss solutions that incorporate a stage of cosmic inflation and estimate the primordial spectrum of density perturbations seeded during such a stage. Inflation driven by…
For a 4-dimensional spatially-flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe with a scalar field $ϕ(x)$, potential $V(ϕ)$ and constant equation of state $w=p/ρ$, we show that an expanding solution characterized by $ε=3(1+w)/2$ produces the same scalar perturbations as a contracting solution with $\hatε=1/ε$. The same symmetry applies to both the dominant and subdominant scalar perturbation modes. This result admits a simple physical interpretation and generalizes to $d$ spacetime dimensions if we define $ε\equiv [(2d-5)+(d-1)w]/(d-2)$.
We consider cosmological solutions of string and M-theory compactified to four dimensions by giving a general prescription to construct four-dimensional modular cosmologies with two commuting Killing vectors from vacuum solutions. By lifting these solutions to higher dimensions we analyze the existence of cosmological singularities and find that, in the case of non-closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universes, singularities can be removed from the higher-dimensional model when only one of the extra dimensions is time-varying. By studying the moduli space of compactifications of M-theory resulti…
Oscillating moduli fields can support a cosmological scaling solution in the presence of a perfect fluid when the scalar field potential satisfies appropriate conditions. We examine when such conditions arise in higher-dimensional, non-linear sigma-models that are reduced to four dimensions under a generalized Scherk-Schwarz compactification. We show explicitly that scaling behaviour is possible when the higher-dimensional action exhibits a global SL(n,R) or O(2,2) symmetry. These underlying symmetries can be exploited to generate non-trivial scaling solutions when the moduli fields have non-c…
Using the homogeneous Gödel spacetimes we find some new solutions for the field equations of bosonic string effective action up to first order in $α'$ including both dilaton and axion fields. We then discuss in detail the (non-)Abelian T-dualization of Gödel string cosmologies via the Poisson-Lie (PL) T-duality approach. In studying Abelian T-duality of the models we get seven dual models in such a way that they are constructed by one-, two- and three-dimensional Abelian Lie groups acting freely on the target space manifold. The results of our study show that the Abelian T-dual models are, und…
We analyze flat FRW cosmologies and hyperscaling-violating geometries by emphasizing the analytic continuation between them and their scale covariance. We exhibit two main calculations where this point of view is useful. First, based on the scale covariance, we show that the structure of higher curvature corrections to Einstein's equation is very simple. Second, in the context of accelerated FRW cosmologies, also known as Q-space, we begin by calculating the Bunch-Davies wavefunctional for a massless scalar field and considering its interpretation as a generating functional of correlation func…
In this paper, we use a known duality between expanding and contracting cosmologies to construct a dual of the inflationary flow hierarchy applicable to contracting cosmologies such as Ekpyrotic and Cyclic models. We show that the inflationary flow equations are invariant under the duality and therefore apply equally well to inflation or to cyclic cosmology. We construct a self-consistent small-parameter approximation dual to the slow-roll approximation in inflation, and calculate the power spectrum of perturbations in this limit. We also recover the matter-dominated contracting solution of Wa…
In the present paper we study the evolution of the modes of a scalar field in a cyclic cosmology. In order to keep the discussion clear, we study the features of a scalar field in a toy model, a Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe with a periodic scale factor, in which the universe expands, contracts and bounces infinite times, in the approximation in which the dynamic features of this universe are driven by some external factor, without the backreaction of the scalar field under study. In particular, we show that particle production exhibits features of the cyclic cosmology. Also, by studying …
We consider alternative inflationary cosmologies in massive gravity with degenerate reference metrics and study the feasibilities of the emergent universe scenario, bouncing and cyclic universes. We focus on the construction of the Einstein static universe, classes of exact solutions of bouncing and cyclic universes in degenerate massive gravity. We further study the stabilities of the Einstein static universe against both homogeneous and inhomogeneous scalar perturbations and give the parameters region for a stable Einstein static universe.
In this paper we establish dualities between inflationary, cyclic/ekpyrotic, and phantom cosmologies within the patch formalism approximating high-energy effects in scenarios with extra dimensions. The exact dualities relating the four-dimensional spectra are broken in favour of their braneworld counterparts; the dual solutions display new interesting features because of the modification of the effective Friedmann equation on the brane. We then address some qualitative issues about phantomlike cosmologies without phantom matter.
It is shown that spatially flat, isotropic cosmologies derived from the Brans--Dicke gravity action exhibit a scale factor duality invariance. This classical duality is then associated with a hidden $N=2$ supersymmetry at the quantum level and the supersymmetric quantum constraints are solved exactly. These symmetries also apply to a dimensionally reduced version of vacuum Einstein gravity.
Cyclic universes with bouncing solutions are candidates for solving the big bang initial singularity problem. Here we seek bouncing solutions in a modified Gauss-Bonnet gravity theory, of the type $R+f(G)$, where $R$ is the Ricci scalar, $G$ is the Gauss-Bonnet term, and $f$ some function of it. In finding such a bouncing solution we resort to a technique that reduces the order of the differential equations of the $R+f(G)$ theory to second order equations. As general relativity is a theory whose equations are of second order, this order reduction technique enables one to find solutions which a…
Aspects of superstring cosmology are reviewed with an emphasis on the cosmological implications of duality symmetries in the theory. The string effective actions are summarized and toroidal compactification to four dimensions reviewed. Global symmetries that arise in the compactification are discussed and the duality relationships between the string effective actions are then highlighted. Higher-dimensional Kasner cosmologies are presented and interpreted in both string and Einstein frames, and then given in dimensionally reduced forms. String cosmologies containing both non-trivial Neveu-Schw…
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 identify the quantum group ${\Large\textsl{U}}_\textsl{w}(sl_2)$ in the $L$-operator of $τ^{(2)}$-model for a generic $\textsl{w}$ as a subalgebra of $U_{\sf q} (sl_2)$ with $\textsl{w} = {\sf q}^{-2}$. In the roots of unity case, ${\sf q}=q, \textsl{w} = ω$ with $q^{\bf n} = ω^N = 1$, the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of XXZ-model with the $U_q (sl_2)$-cyclic representation are determined by the $τ^{(2)}$-model with the induced ${\Large\textsl{U}}_ω(sl_2)$-cyclic representation, which is decomposed as a finite sum of $τ^{(2)}$-models in non-superintegrable inhomogeneous $N$-state chiral Pot…
Ekpyrotic and cyclic cosmologies provide theories of the very early and of the very late universe. In these models, the big bang is described as a collision of branes - and thus the big bang is not the beginning of time. Before the big bang, there is an ekpyrotic phase with equation of state w=P/rho >> 1 (where P is the average pressure and rho the average energy density) during which the universe slowly contracts. This phase resolves the standard cosmological puzzles and generates a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of cosmological perturbations containing a significant non-gaussian component. …
We generalize previous work on inhomogeneous pre-big bang cosmology by including the effect of non-trivial moduli and antisymmetric-tensor/axion fields. The general quasi-homogeneous asymptotic solution---as one approaches the big bang singularity from perturbative initial data---is given and its range of validity is discussed, allowing us to give a general quantitative estimate of the amount of inflation obtained during the perturbative pre-big bang era. The question of determining early-time ``attractors'' for generic pre-big bang cosmologies is also addressed, and a motivated conjecture is …
We discuss some problems related to dimensional reductions of gravity theories to two-dimensional and one-dimensional dilaton gravity models. We first consider the most general cylindrical reductions of the four-dimensional gravity and derive the corresponding (1+1)-dimensional dilaton gravity, paying a special attention to a possibility of producing nontrivial cosmological potentials from pure geometric variables (so to speak, from `nothing'). Then we discuss further reductions of two-dimensional theories to the dimension one by a general procedure of separating the space and time variables. …
The k-essence theory with a power-law function of $(\partialϕ)^2$ and Rastall's non-conservative theory of gravity with a scalar field are shown to have the same solutions for the metric under the assumption that both the metric and the scalar fields depend on a single coordinate. This equivalence (called k-R duality) holds for static configurations with various symmetries (spherical, plane, cylindrical, etc.) and all homogeneous cosmologies. In the presence of matter, Rastall's theory requires additional assumptions on how the stress-energy tensor non-conservation is distributed between diffe…
We point out a new phenomenon which seems to be generic in 4d effective theories of scalar fields coupled to Einstein gravity, when applied to cosmology. A lift of such theories to a Weyl-invariant extension allows one to define classical evolution through cosmological singularities unambiguously, and hence construct geodesically complete background spacetimes. An attractor mechanism ensures that, at the level of the effective theory, generic solutions undergo a big crunch/big bang transition by contracting to zero size, passing through a brief antigravity phase, shrinking to zero size again, …
We consider quantum field theory on a spacetime representing the Big Crunch/Big Bang transition postulated in the ekpyrotic or cyclic cosmologies. We show via several independent methods that an essentially unique matching rule holds connecting the incoming state, in which a single extra dimension shrinks to zero, to the outgoing state in which it re-expands at the same rate. For free fields in our construction there is no particle production from the incoming adiabatic vacuum. When interactions are included the total particle production for fixed external momentum is finite at tree level. We …
