Dynamical attractors in contracting spacetimes dominated by kinetically coupled scalar fields

Anna Ijjas, Frans Pretorius, Paul J. Steinhardt, David Garfinkle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present non-perturbative numerical relativity simulations of slowly contracting spacetimes in which the scalar field driving slow contraction is coupled to a second scalar field through an exponential non-linear s model-type kinetic interaction. These models are important because they can generate a nearly scale-invariant spectrum of super-Hubble density fluctuations fully consistent with cosmic microwave background observations. We show that the non-linear evolution rapidly approaches a homogeneous, isotropic and flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) geometry for a wide range of inhomogeneous and anisotropic initial conditions. Ultimately, we find, the kinetic coupling causes the evolution to deflect away from flat FRW and towards a novel Kasner-like stationary point, but in general this occurs on time scales that are too long to be observationally relevant.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number030
JournalJournal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Volume2021
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics

Keywords

  • alternatives to inflation
  • cosmological simulations
  • gravity
  • physics of the early universe

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