Redbelly98 said:
... I skimmed through the abstracts you quoted...
I'm glad you skimmed the abstracts. It's good to have someone else to talk to who might be interested in keeping track of this part of the literature. To me, the most revealing paper on the list was this one:
http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.2835
Matter Bounce in Horava-Lifgarbagez Cosmology
Robert Brandenberger (McGill University and CERN)
6 pages, 1 figure
(Submitted on 18 Apr 2009)
I'll quote some excerpts to give an idea of content.
"...Since the curvature perturbation R grows on super-Hubble scales, a matter bounce leads to a larger amplitude of non-Gaussianities than slow-roll single-field inflation. Since it is a different mode of R which dominates, the shape of the non-Gaussianities is also different from what is obtained in slow-roll single-field inflation models.
The specific predictions for the amplitude and shape of the three-point function (the “bispectrum”) were worked out in [21]. In particular, the predicted amplitude of the bispectrum is very close to the level which could be detected using the Planck satellite experiment.
...
...Thus, one of the main messages of this Note is that it is not necessary to force a period of inflationary expansion into Horava-Lifgarbagez cosmology. The alternative matter bounce scenario predicts an amplitude of the normalized bi-spectrum is the order of 1, and a specific shape of this three-point function, as studied in detail in [21].
These specific predictions are potentially within the reach of upcoming CMB missions such as PLANCK.
To obtain a successful late-time cosmology, the model presented here must be supplemented with a mechanism to transfer the energy at late times to Standard Model matter and radiation..."
In case anyone is unfamiliar with Brandenberger's standing, he was co-organizer of a 3week workshop at Kavli ITP Santa Barbara which brought LQG and String people together to study resolution of the cosmo singularity, and spacetime singularities in general (The Quantum Nature of Spacetime Singularities).
This year at the big Paris meeting (Marcel Grossmann 12) he is the one chosen to chair the parallel session on bounce cosmologies.
To put it crassly, he is a respected old boy of the inner circle.
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I was unfamiliar with the Chaplygin equation of state.
Just took a look at the introduction to this paper, which has something about it:
http://arXiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/0202064v2
p = - A/rho
where A is some positive constant.
If anyone has some better sources please share them. This seems to be just another type of inflation, with a different kind of exotic matter for the inflaton field. This time the "exotic fluid" postulated to drive the inflation has an equation of state of that particular form.
"...
thereby avoiding the above mentioned fine-tuning problems. This is achieved via the introduction, within the frame work of FRW cosmology, of an exotic background fluid, the Chaplygin gas, described by the equation of state... "
Fortunately only one of the papers listed depends on the universe tanking up on Chaplygin gas so I'm going to focus on some of the others.
I like Brandenberger's because among other things it
obviates inflation. This puts Willy the Razor in high good humor, grinning from ear to ear.