No Arabic abstract
We study the generalisations of the Craps-Sethi-Verlinde matrix big bang model to curved, in particular plane wave, space-times, beginning with a careful discussion of the DLCQ procedure. Singular homogeneous plane waves are ideal toy-models of realistic space-time singularities since they have been shown to arise universally as their Penrose limits, and we emphasise the role played by the symmetries of these plane waves in implementing the flat space Seiberg-Sen DLCQ prescription for these curved backgrounds. We then analyse various aspects of the resulting matrix string Yang-Mills theories, such as the relation between strong coupling space-time singularities and world-sheet tachyonic mass terms. In order to have concrete examples at hand, in an appendix we determine and analyse the IIA singular homogeneous plane wave - null dilaton backgrounds.
The large-$N$ master field of the Lorentzian IIB matrix model can, in principle, give rise to a particular degenerate metric relevant to a regularized big bang. The length parameter of this degenerate metric is then calculated in terms of the IIB-matrix-model length scale.
In this paper we define and study a matrix model describing the M-theory plane wave background with a single Horava-Witten domain wall. In the limit of infinite mu, the matrix model action becomes quadratic and we can identify the matrix Hamiltonian with a regularized Hamiltonian for hemispherical membranes that carry fermionic degrees of freedom on their boundaries. The number of fermionic degrees of freedom must be sixteen; this condition arises naturally in the framework of the matrix model. We can also prove the exact E_8 symmetry of the spectrum around the membrane vacua at infinite mu, which arises as a current algebra at level one just as in the heterotic string. We also find the full E_8 gauge multiplet as well as the multiple-gluon states, carried by collections of hemispherical membranes. Finally we discuss the dual description of the hemispherical membranes in terms of spherical fivebranes immersed in the domain wall; we identify the correct vacuum of the matrix model and make some preliminary comparisons with the (1,0) superconformal field theory.
We point out a new phenomenon which seems to be generic in 4d effective theories of scalar fields coupled to Einstein gravity, when applied to cosmology. A lift of such theories to a Weyl-invariant extension allows one to define classical evolution through cosmological singularities unambiguously, and hence construct geodesically complete background spacetimes. An attractor mechanism ensures that, at the level of the effective theory, generic solutions undergo a big crunch/big bang transition by contracting to zero size, passing through a brief antigravity phase, shrinking to zero size again, and re-emerging into an expanding normal gravity phase. The result may be useful for the construction of complete bouncing cosmologies like the cyclic model.
In a recent series of papers, we have shown that theories with scalar fields coupled to gravity (e.g., the standard model) can be lifted to a Weyl-invariant equivalent theory in which it is possible to unambiguously trace the classical cosmological evolution through the transition from big crunch to big bang. The key was identifying a sufficient number of finite, Weyl-invariant conserved quantities to uniquely match the fundamental cosmological degrees of freedom across the transition. In so doing we had to account for the well-known fact that many Weyl-invariant quantities diverge at the crunch and bang. Recently, some authors rediscovered a few of these divergences and concluded based on their existence alone that the theories cannot be geodesically complete. In this note, we show that this conclusion is invalid. Using conserved quantities we explicitly construct the complete set of geodesics and show that they pass continuously through the big crunch-big bang transition.
In string theory, the traditional picture of a Universe that emerges from the inflation of a very small and highly curved space-time patch is a possibility, not a necessity: quite different initial conditions are possible, and not necessarily unlikely. In particular, the duality symmetries of string theory suggest scenarios in which the Universe starts inflating from an initial state characterized by very small curvature and interactions. Such a state, being gravitationally unstable, will evolve towards higher curvature and coupling, until string-size effects and loop corrections make the Universe bounce into a standard, decreasing-curvature regime. In such a context, the hot big bang of conventional cosmology is replaced by a hot big bounce in which the bouncing and heating mechanisms originate from the quantum production of particles in the high-curvature, large-coupling pre-bounce phase. Here we briefly summarize the main features of this inflationary scenario, proposed a quarter century ago. In its simplest version (where it represents an alternative and not a complement to standard slow-roll inflation) it can produce a viable spectrum of density perturbations, together with a tensor component characterized by a blue spectral index with a peak in the GHz frequency range. That means, phenomenologically, a very small contribution to a primordial B-mode in the CMB polarization, and the possibility of a large enough stochastic background of gravitational waves to be measurable by present or future gravitational wave detectors.