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Scale-invariant perturbations in ekpyrotic cosmologies without fine-tuning of initial conditions

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arxiv 1506.01011 v1 pith:LNGQYW57 submitted 2015-05-30 astro-ph.CO gr-qchep-th

classification astro-ph.COgr-qchep-th
keywords ekpyroticscale-invariantconditionsinitialperturbationscontractioncosmologiesduring
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Ekpyrotic bouncing cosmologies have been proposed as alternatives to inflation. In these scenarios, the universe is smoothed and flattened during a period of slow contraction preceding the bounce while quantum fluctuations generate nearly scale-invariant super-horizon perturbations that seed structure in the post-bounce universe. An analysis by Tolley and Wesley (2007) showed that, for a wide range of ekpyrotic models, generating a scale-invariant spectrum of adiabatic or entropic fluctuations is only possible if the cosmological background is unstable, in which case the scenario is highly sensitive to initial conditions. In this paper, we analyze an important counterexample: a simple action that generates a Gaussian, scale-invariant spectrum of entropic perturbations during ekpyrotic contraction without requiring fine-tuned initial conditions. Based on this example, we discuss some generalizations.

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Cited by 4 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. OpenAlex reports about 46 citations worldwide. Full citation record

  1. Is there ghost and tachyon free bounce in UV complete gravity theory?

    gr-qc 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Ghost- and tachyon-free bounces in AID gravity require a negative cosmological constant; known positive-Λ solutions inevitably contain ghost radiation.

  2. Probability of the Initial Conditions for Inflation and Slow Contraction

    gr-qc 2025-05 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    A probability estimate for scalar-field homogeneity at the onset of inflation and slow contraction concludes that, after optimizing over initial spectra, inflation is vastly more likely than ekpyrosis to have the requ...

  3. Causal Horizons, Geodesic Completeness and Stability in Slow Contraction Cosmology

    gr-qc 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    Semi-infinite slow contraction (ε>3) is past-complete and horizon-free, asymptotes to Minkowski, evades BGV, and stays stable, unlike contracting de Sitter.

  4. Non-Gaussianity and Strong-Coupling Problem in a Two-Field DHOST Bouncing Model

    hep-th 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    Refines two-field DHOST bouncing model to match observed f_NL and keep strong-coupling scale above background energy, claiming full viability at linear and non-linear levels.

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