# The universe will collapse soon

1. Aug 5, 2015

### wolram

What are we going to do about it?

arXiv:1508.00631 [pdf, other]
The fate of a Universe driven by a linear potential
Ricardo Z. Ferreira, Pedro P. Avelino
Comments: 6 pages, 3 figures
Subjects: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc); High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)

We study the fate of our Universe assuming that the present accelerated stage is due to a scalar field in a linear potential. Such a Universe would bounce and collapse in the future. We solve numerically and analytically the equations of motion for the scalar field and the scale factor. In particular, we relate the duration of the accelerated stage, the bounce and the collapse with the mass of the field and, thus, with the current value of equation of state $w$. We obtain an expression which predicts the age of the Universe for a given $w+1$. The present constraints on $w$ imply that the Universe will not collapse in the next $56$ billion years. Moreover, a cosmological solution to the coincidence problem favors a significant deviation of $w$ from $-1$ such that the Universe collapses in the not too distant future.

2. Aug 5, 2015

### BvU

Stay calm and carry on

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