J.-L. Lehners: Inflationary puzzles and cyclic alternatives

by Jean-Luc Lehners (Albert Einstein-Institut)

Thursday 27 Jun 2013, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Berlin

HS3 (Physikdepartment)

I will discuss a number of conceptual issues that inflationary cosmologies face, such as the puzzles of initial conditions and of the eternally inflating multiverse. Cyclic models of the universe can address these issues in a more satisfactory manner, but present challenges of their own, especially regarding the bounce from a contracting to an expanding phase of the universe. I will review the observational status of cyclic models, including recent work on the quantum-to-classical transition in an ekpyrotic phase, and progress related to the modelling of non-singular bounces.