Cosmological singularity theorems such as that of Hawking and Penrose assume local curvature conditions as well as global ones like the existence of a compact (achronal) slice. Here, we prove a new singularity theorem for chronological spacetimes that satisfy what we call a `past null focusing' condition. Such a condition forces all null geodesics with future endpoint to develop a pair of conjugate points if past complete. By the Einstein field equations, such a condition will be satisfied if the density of matter fields remains sufficiently high towards the past of the spacetime, as may be expected in certain cosmological scenarios. The theorem obtained doesn't make starting assumptions about the spacetime's topology, such as the existence of a compact achronal slice, and if in addition to a `past null focusing' condition we assume the timelike convergence condition, then further consequences pertaining to the existence of CMC foliations and the character of the singularity are obtained. With the addition of the timelike convergence condition, we obtain the conclusion that all timelike geodesics are past incomplete, which is much stronger than the usual single incomplete non-spacelike geodesic.
We consider globally hyperbolic spacetimes with compact Cauchy surfaces in a setting compatible with the presence of a positive cosmological constant. More specifically, for 3+1 dimensional spacetimes which satisfy the null energy condition and contain a future expanding compact Cauchy surface, we establish a precise connection between the topology of the Cauchy surfaces and the occurrence of past singularities. In addition to (a refinement of) the Penrose singularity theorem, the proof makes use of some recent advances in the topology of 3-manifolds and of certain fundamental existence result…
Cosmological models may result in future singularities. We show that, in the framework of dynamical varying speed of light theories, it is possible to regularize those singularities.
In this talk we review the appearance of new types of singularities (big rip, sudden singularities...) in FLRW cosmological models that have arisen on considering explanations for accelerated expansion of our universe.
We apply the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for the quantum FRW cosmological model with a minimal massless scalar field. We find that the quantum FRW cosmological model has quantum potential dominated solutions that avoid the initial and the final cosmological singularities. It is suggested that the quantum potential and the back-reaction of geometry and matter fields may change the property of the cosmological singularities of the Universe.
I discuss recent work (gr-qc/0001047) on non-oscillatory singularities in four dimensional space-times with scalar field or stiff fluid matter, in the context of the BKL proposal.
Due to the accelerated expansion of the universe, the possibility of formation of singularities has changed from the classical Big Bang and Big Crunch singularities to include a number of new scenarios. In recent papers it has been shown that such singularities may appear in inflationary cosmological models with a fractional power scalar field potential. In this paper we enlarge the analysis of singularities in scalar field cosmological models by the use of generalised power expansions of their Hubble scalar and their scalar field in order to describe all possible models leading to a singulari…
Solutions of the Friedmann-Lemaitre cosmological equations of general relativity have been found with finite-time singularities that are everywhere regular, have regular Hubble expansion rate, and obey the strong-energy conditions but possess pressure and acceleration singularities at finite time that are not associated with geodesic incompleteness. We show how these solutions with sudden singularities can be constructed using fractional series methods and find the limiting form of the equation of state on approach to the singularity.
The purpose of this brief report is to present some results of our on-going project on the asymptotic behaviour of braneworld-type solutions on approach to their possible finite `time' singularities.
Recent progress in understanding the structure of cosmological singularities is reviewed. The well-known picture due to Belinskii, Khalatnikov and Lifschitz (BKL) is summarized briefly and it is discussed what existing analytical and numerical results have to tell us about the validity of this picture. If the BKL description is correct then most cosmological singularities are complicated. However there are some cases where it predicts simple singularities. These cases should be particularly amenable to mathematical investigation and the results in this direction which have been achieved so far…
We consider spacetimes consisting of a manifold with Lorentzian metric and a weight function or scalar field. These spacetimes admit a Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor which is a natural generalization of the Ricci tensor. We impose an energy condition on the Bakry-Émery-Ricci tensor and obtain singularity theorems of a cosmological type, both for zero and for positive cosmological constant. That is, we find conditions under which every timelike geodesic is incomplete. These conditions are given by "open" inequalities, so we examine the borderline (equality) cases and show that certain singularities a…
We review recent work and present new examples about the character of singularities in globally and regularly hyperbolic, isotropic universes. These include recent singular relativistic models, tachyonic and phantom universes as well as inflationary cosmologies.
We prove well-posedness of the initial value problem for the Einstein equations for spatially-homogeneous cosmologies with data at an isotropic cosmological singularity, for which the matter content is either a cosmological constant with collisionless particles of a single mass (possibly zero) or a cosmological constant with a perfect fluid having the radiation equation of state. In both cases, with a positive cosmological constant, these solutions, except possibly for Bianchi-type-IX, will expand forever, and be geodesically-complete into the future.
Isotropic cosmological singularities are singularities which can be removed by rescaling the metric. In some cases already studied (gr-qc/9903008, gr-qc/9903009, gr-qc/9903018) existence and uniqueness of cosmological models with data at the singularity has been established. These were cosmologies with, as source, either perfect fluids with linear equations of state or massless, collisionless particles. In this article we consider how to extend these results to a variety of other matter models. These are scalar fields, massive collisionless matter, the Yang-Mills plasma of Choquet-Bruhat, or m…
In this lecture we will show some properties of a singularity-free solution to Einstein's equations and its accordance with some theorems dealing with singularities. We will also discuss the implications of the results.
We construct a large class of vacuum solutions of the Einstein equations without any symmetries and with controlled asymptotics near a timelike singularity. The solutions are obtained by a Fuchs analysis of the equations which evolve the metric in a spacelike direction. We further observe that the changes of signs of some of the terms (walls) in the associated Hamiltonian invalidate the "cosmological billards" heuristic arguments for existence of singularities of mixmaster type in the current context.
We study the future cosmological singularities in the framework of massive gravity and minimal massive bigravity theory. In this regards, we consider the possible classes of finite-time future singularities such as sudden, big rip, big freeze and big brake singularities in the massive universe. In dRGT model with an open expanding universe we obtain the sudden singularity in the future at a finite-time which generally without taking account of any particular realistic equation of state, is not avoidable and except the fluid density, all dynamical physical quantities such as pressure approach t…
We review aspects of certain time-dependent deformations of $AdS/CFT$ containing cosmological singularities and their gauge theory duals. Towards understanding these solutions better, we explore similar singular deformations of de Sitter space and argue that these solutions are constrained, possibly corresponding to specific initial conditions.
We consider the conformal Einstein equations for massless collisionless gas cosmologies which admit an isotropic singularity. It is shown that the Cauchy problem for these equations is well-posed with data consisting of the limiting particle distribution function at the singularity.
There exists a widespread belief that signature type change could be used to avoid spacetime singularities. We show that signature change cannot be utilised to this end unless the Einstein equation is abandoned at the suface of signature type change. We also discuss how to solve the initial value problem and show to which extent smooth and discontinuous signature changing solutions are equivalent.
In this work, we study the issue of the past and future cosmological singularities in the context of the fourth-order conformal Weyl gravity. In particular, we investigate the emergent universe scenario proposed by Ellis {\it et al}, and find the stability conditions of the corresponding Einstein static state using the fixed point approach. We show that depending on the values of the parameters of the conformal Weyl gravity theory, there are possibilities for having initially stable emergent states for an FRW universe with both the positive and negative spatial curvatures. This represents that…
In this paper, considering the energy conditions we shall show that some of the energy conditions are violated in the vicinity of future singularities with the scale factor suggested by Dabrowski - Marosek.
In this paper we characterize barotropic index singularities of homogeneous isotropic cosmological models. They are shown to appear in cosmologies for which the scale factor is analytical with a Taylor series in which the linear and quadratic terms are absent. Though the barotropic index of the perfect fluid is singular, the singularities are weak, as it happens for other models for which the density and the pressure are regular.
We consider the problem of describing the asymptotic behaviour of \textsc{FRW} universes near their spacetime singularities in general relativity. We find that the Bel-Robinson energy of these universes in conjunction with the Hubble expansion rate and the scale factor proves to be an appropriate measure leading to a complete classification of the possible singularities. We show how our scheme covers all known cases of cosmological asymptotics possible in these universes and also predicts new and distinct types of singularities. We further prove that various asymptotic forms met in flat cosmol…
This paper is a further development of the approach to weak cosmic censorship proposed by the authors in Ref. 5. We state and prove a modified version of that work's main result under significantly relaxed assumptions on the asymptotic structure of space--time. The result, which imposes strong constraints on the occurrence of naked singularities of the strong curvature type, is in particular applicable to physically realistic cosmological models.
I present the factorization(s) of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for vacuum FRW minisuperspace universes of arbitrary Hartle-Hawking factor ordering, including the so-called strictly isospectral supersymmetric method. By the latter means, one can introduce an infinite class of singular FRW minisuperspace wavefunctions characterized by a Darboux parameter that mathematically speaking is a Riccati integration constant, while physically determines the position of these strictly isospectral singularities on the Misner time axis
In 1985 Goode and Wainwright devised the concept of an isotropic singularity. Since that time, numerous authors have explored the interesting consequences, in mathematical cosmology, of assuming the existence of this type of singularity. In this paper, we collate all examples of cosmological models which are known to admit an isotropic singularity, and make a number of observations regarding their general characteristics.
We consider the conformal Einstein equations for massless collisionless gas cosmologies which admit an isotropic singularity. After developing the general theory, we restrict to spatially-homogeneous cosmologies. We show that the Cauchy problem for these equations is well-posed with data consisting of the limiting particle distribution function at the singularity.
Inhomogeneous cosmological models have recently become a very interesting alternative to standard cosmology. This is because these models are able to fit cosmological observations without the need for dark energy. However, due to inhomogeneity and pressure-less matter content, these models can suffer from shell crossing singularities. These singularities occur when two shell of dust collide with each other leading to infinite values of the density. In this Letter we show that if inhomogeneous pressure is included then these singularities can be prevented from occurring over the period of struc…
We consider different aspects of the problem of cosmological singularity such as the BKL oscillatory approach to the 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. The chaoticity of the oscillatory approach to the cosmological singularity is also discussed. The Conclusion contains some thoughts about the past and the future of the Universe in the light of the oscillatory approach to the B…
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 consider FLRW cosmological models with standard Friedmann equations, but leaving free the equation of state. We assume that the dark energy content of the universe is encoded in an equation of state $p=f(ρ)$, which is expressed with most generality in the form of a power expansion. The inclusion of this expansion in Friedmann equations allows us to construct a perturbative solution and to relate the coefficients of the equation of state with the formation of singularities of different types.
We explore the character of finite-time singularities that are possible to arise in FRW universes and in specific braneworld configurations. For FRW universes, we derive a first classification of singularities that is based on the behaviour of the Hubble rate. We further extend and complete this classification with the use of the Bel-Robinson energy. The braneworld models that we study consist of a three-brane embedded in a five-dimensional bulk space that is inhabited by a scalar field or a perfect fluid. Our analysis that is performed with the method of asymptotic splittings shows that these…
An overview is provided of the singularity theorems in cosmological contexts at a level suitable for advanced graduate students. The necessary background from tensor and causal geometry to understand the theorems is supplied, the mathematical notion of a cosmology is described in some detail and issues related to the range of validity of general relativity are also discussed.
We show that in a large class of two dimensional models with conformal matter fields, the semiclassical cosmological solutions have a weak coupling singularity if the classical matter content is below a certain threshold. This threshold and the approach to the singularity are model-independent. When the matter fields are not conformally invariant, the singularity persists if the quantum state is the vacuum near the singularity, and could dissappear for other quantum states.
Varying physical constant cosmologies were claimed to solve standard cosmological problems such as the horizon, the flatness and the $Λ$-problem. In this paper, we suggest yet another possible application of these theories: solving the singularity problem. By specifying some examples we show that various cosmological singularities may be regularized provided the physical constants evolve in time in an appropriate way.
We discuss combined constraints, coming from the cosmic microwave background shift parameter $\mathcal{R}$, baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) distance parameter $\mathcal{A}$, and from the latest type Ia supernovae data, imposed on cosmological models which allow sudden future singularities of pressure. We show that due to their weakness such sudden singularities may happen in the very near future and that at present they can mimic standard dark energy models.
We define the notion of a finite-time singularity of a vector field and then discuss a technique suitable for the asymptotic analysis of vector fields and their integral curves in the neighborhood of such a singularity. Having in mind the application of this method to cosmology, we also provide an analysis of the time singularities of an isotropic universe filled with a perfect fluid in general relativity.
Positive energy singularities induced by Sine-Gordon solitons in 1+1 dimensional dilaton gravity with positive and negative cosmological constant are considered. When the cosmological constant is positive, the singularities combine a white hole, a timelike singularity and a black hole joined smoothly near the soliton center. When the cosmological constant is negative, the solutions describe two timelike singularities joined smoothly near the soliton center. We describe these spacetimes and examine their evaporation in the one loop approximation.
Levi-Civita spacetimes have classical naked singularities. They also have quantum singularities. Quantum singularities in general relativistic spacetimes are determined by the behavior of quantum test particles. A static spacetime is said to be quantum mechanically singular if the spatial portion of the wave operator is not essentially self-adjoint on a $C_{0}^{\infty}$ domain in $L^{2}$, a Hilbert space of square integrable functions. Here we summarize how Weyl's limit point-limit circle criterion can be used to determine whether a wave operator is essentially self-adjoint and how this test c…
The most detailed existing proposal for the structure of spacetime singularities originates in the work of Belinskii, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz. We show rigorously the correctness of this proposal in the case of analytic solutions of the Einstein equations coupled to a scalar field or stiff fluid. More specifically, we prove the existence of a family of spacetimes depending on the same number of free functions as the general solution which have the asymptotics suggested by the Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz proposal near their singularities. In these spacetimes a neighbourhood of the singularit…
The existence of a singularity by definition implies a preferred scale--the affine parameter distance from/to the singularity of a causal geodesic that is used to define it. However, this variable scale is also captured by the expansion along the geodesic, and this can be used to obtain a regularized state space picture by means of a conformal transformation that factors out the expansion. This leads to the conformal `Hubble-normalized' orthonormal frame approach which allows one to translate methods and results concerning spatially homogeneous models into the generic inhomogeneous context, wh…
We investigate the behavior of the entanglement entropy of a confining gauge theory near cosmological singularities using gauge/gravity duality. As expected, the coefficients of the UV divergent terms are given by simple geometric properties of the entangling surface in the time-dependent background. The finite (universal) part of the entanglement entropy either grows without bound or remains bounded depending on the nature of the singularity and entangling region. We also discuss a confinement/deconfinement phase transition as signaled by the entanglement entropy.
We construct a scalar field based cosmological model, possessing a cosmological singularity characterized by a finite value of the cosmological radius and an infinite scalar curvature. Using the methods of the qualitative theory of differential equations, we give a complete description of the cosmological evolutions in the model under consideration. There are four classes of evolutions, two of which have finite lifetimes, while the other two undergo an infinite expansion.
The existence of interactions between dark matter and dark energy has been widely studied, since they can fit well the observational data and may provide new physics through such an interaction. In this work we analyze these models and investigate their potential relation with future cosmological singularities. We find that every future singularity found in the literature can be mapped into a singularity of the interaction term, that we call $Q$-singularity, where the energy flow between the dark components diverges. Furthermore, this framework allows to identify a new type of future singulari…
This thesis is concerned with global properties of those cosmological solutions of Einstein's field equations which obey accelerated expansion into the future driven by a non-vanishing cosmological constant, as suggested by current cosmological observations. In particular, the strong cosmic censorship and BKL conjecture are investigated in special classes of spacetimes. For this, a new numerical technique based on spectral methods is introduced to be able to deal with situations where the spatial topology is non-trivial from the numerical point of view, such as the 3-sphere. Therefor, an expli…
New exact vacuum solutions with various singularities in the plane-symmetric spacetime are shown, and they are applied to the analysis of inhomogeneous cosmological models and colliding gravitational waves. One of the singularities can be true null singularities, whose existence was locally clarified by Ori. These solutions may be interesting from the viewpoint of the variety of cosmological singularities and the instability problem of Cauchy horizons inside black holes.
We show that a class of 3+1 dimensional Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmologies can be embedded within a variety of solutions of string theory. In some realizations the apparent singularities associated with the big bang or big crunch are resolved at non-singular horizons of higher-dimensional quasi-black hole solutions (with compactified real time); in others plausibly they are resolved at D-brane bound states having no conventional space-time interpretation.
In this paper an explicit cosmological model which allows cosmological singularities are discussed. The generalized power-law and asymptotic expansions of the baro-tropic fluid index $ω$ and equivalently the deceleration parameter $q$, in terms of cosmic time $'t'$ are considered. Finally, the strength of the found singularities is discussed.
In this paper, we apply Osgood's criterion from the theory of ordinary differential equations to detect finite-time singularities in a spatially flat FLRW universe in the context of a perfect fluid, a perfect fluid with bulk viscosity, and a Chaplygin and anti-Chaplygin gas. In particular, we applied Osgood's criterion to demonstrate singularity behaviour for Type 0/big crunch singularities as well as Type II/sudden singularities. We show that in each case the choice of initial conditions is important as a certain number of initial conditions leads to finite-time, Type 0 singularities, while o…
We show that, in quadratic lagrangian theories of gravity, isotropic cosmological singularities are stable to the presence of small scalar, vector and tensor inhomogeneities. Unlike in general relativity, a particular exact isotropic solution is shown to be the stable attractor on approach to the initial cosmological singularity. This solution is also known to act as an attractor in Bianchi universes of types I, II and IX, and the results of this paper reinforce the hypothesis that small inhomogeneous and anisotropic perturbations of this attractor form part of the general cosmological solutio…
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…
In this talk we would like to analyse the appearance of singularities in FLRW cosmological models which evolve close to w=-1, where w is the barotropic index of the universe. We relate small terms in cosmological time around w=-1 with the correspondent scale factor of the universe and check for the formation of singularities.
Under spherical symmetry, with double-null coordinates $(u,v)$, we study the gravitational collapse of the Einstein--scalar field system with a positive cosmological constant. The spacetime singularities arise when area radius $r$ vanishes and they are spacelike. We derive new quantitative estimates, obtain polynomial blow-up rates $O(1/r^N)$ for various quantities, and extend the results in [5] by the first author and Zhang and the arguments in [3] by the first author and Gajic to the cosmological settings. In particular, we sharpen the estimates of $r\partial_u r$ and $r\partial_v r$ in [5] …
To gain insight in the quantum nature of cosmological singularities, we study anisotropic Kasner solutions in gauge/gravity duality. The dual description of the bulk evolution towards the singularity involves N = 4 super Yang-Mills on the expanding branch of deformed de Sitter space and is well defined. We compute two-point correlators of Yang-Mills operators of large dimensions using spacelike geodesics anchored on the boundary. The correlators show a strong signature of the singularity around horizon scales and decay at large boundary separation at different rates in different directions. Mo…
We consider the conformal Einstein equations for polytropic perfect fluid cosmologies which admit an isotropic singularity. For the polytropic index gamma strictly greater than 1 and less than or equal to 2 it is shown that the Cauchy problem for these equations is well-posed, that is to say that solutions exist, are unique and depend smoothly on the data, with data consisting of simply the 3-metric of the singularity. The analogous result for gamma=1 (dust) is obtained when Bianchi type symmetry is assumed.
We analyse conformal gauge, or isotropic, singularities in cosmological models in general relativity. Using the calculus of tractors, we find conditions in terms of tractor curvature for a local extension of the conformal structure through a cosmological singularity and prove a local extension theorem.
