XIIème Ecole de Cosmologie
  15 - 20 septembre 2014 IESC, Cargèse
LA FORMATION DES STRUCTURES APRÈS PLANCK
et leur impact dans l’étude des galaxies et la cosmologie

Bouncing universe models

Patrick PETER
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP)

Chapitres

  1. Overview of bouncing models
    • Ekpyrotic and cyclic scenarios
    • Non singular models in string theory
    • Singular models
    • Model zoology
  2. Requirements for a successful bounce
    • Cosmological puzzle resolution
    • The question of shear & the BKL instability
    • The ekpyrotic phase
  3. Cosmological perturbations in the bouncing case
    • Viability of perturbations in a contracting universe
    • A scale-invariant spectrum?
    • Tensor-to-scalar ratio
    • Non gaussianities
  4. A worked-out model
    • Quantum cosmology, Wheeler De Witt and the minisuperspace
    • Bouncing perfect fluid cosmology
    • Perturbations & predictions for the observations.

Résumé

Alternative to inflationary cosmology have been proposed over the years that almost all involve, in one form or another, a phase of contraction followed by a bounce connecting to our currently expanding universe. These models often need to face theoretical difficulties and predict observable consequences at odd with the available data. In these lectures, I will present the necessary ingredients of a working alternative-to-inflation model, discuss their implementation in terms of field or string theory and examine the above mentioned difficulties. I will try and expose some recent ideas based on quantum cosmology within the framework of which a more satisfactory construction could be done.

Bibliographie

  • Articles
    • "The Matter Bounce Alternative to Inflationary Cosmology"
      R. H. Brandenberger - arXiv:1206.4196
    • "Cosmology without inflation"
      P. Peter & N. Pinto-Neto, Phys. Rev. D 78, 063506 (2008) - arXiv:0809.2022
    • "Primordial cosmology"
      P. Peter & J.-P. Uzan, - Oxford University Press (2013)

Programme