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The Ekpyrotic Universe: Colliding Branes and the Origin of the Hot Big Bang

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9 Pith papers citing it
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abstract

We propose a cosmological scenario in which the hot big bang universe is produced by the collision of a brane in the bulk space with a bounding orbifold plane, beginning from an otherwise cold, vacuous, static universe. The model addresses the cosmological horizon, flatness and monopole problems and generates a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of density perturbations without invoking superluminal expansion (inflation). The scenario relies, instead, on physical phenomena that arise naturally in theories based on extra dimensions and branes. As an example, we present our scenario predominantly within the context of heterotic M-theory. A prediction that distinguishes this scenario from standard inflationary cosmology is a strongly blue gravitational wave spectrum, which has consequences for microwave background polarization experiments and gravitational wave detectors.

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representative citing papers

Constraints on the inflationary vacuum and reheating era from NANOGrav

astro-ph.CO · 2026-05-06 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

NANOGrav data favors a blue-tilted tensor spectrum with nt ≈ 2.2, radiation-dominated reheating, and alpha-vacuum states over standard Bunch-Davies, with a frequency-dependent alpha suggested to resolve the blue-tilt tension.

The Quintom theory of dark energy after DESI DR2

astro-ph.CO · 2025-05-30 · unverdicted · novelty 3.0

This review traces the history of dynamical dark energy, presents the no-go theorem against single-field crossing of w = -1, and surveys viable Quintom constructions including multi-field models and modified gravity in light of DESI DR2 hints.

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