Adiabatic perturbations in pre big bang models: matching conditions and scale invariance

At low energy, the four-dimensional effective action of the ekpyrotic model of the universe is equivalent to a slightly modified version of the pre big bang model. We discuss cosmological perturbations in these models. In particular we address the issue of matching the perturbations from a collapsing to an expanding phase in full generality. We show that, generically, one obtains $n=0$ for the spectrum of scalar perturbations in the original pre big model (with vanishing potential). When an exponential potential for the dilaton is included, a scale invariant spectrum ($n=1$) of adiabatic scalar perturbations is produced under very generic matching conditions, both in a modified pre big bang and ekpyrotic scenario. We also derive general results valid for power law scale factors matched to a radiation dominated era.