Supersmoothing through slow contraction

Abstract

Performing a fully non-perturbative analysis using the tools of numerical general relativity, we demonstrate that a period of slow contraction is a “supersmoothing” cosmological phase that homogenizes, isotropizes and flattens the universe both classically and quantum mechanically and can do so far more robustly and rapidly than had been realized in earlier studies.

Keywords

• Slow contraction
• Cyclic universe
• Cosmological bounce
• Bouncing cosmology