Bouncing and collapsing universes dual to late-time cosmological models

Abstract

AbstractWe use the Jordan frame–Einstein frame correspondence to explore dual universes with contrasting cosmological evolutions. We study the mapping between Einstein and Jordan frames where the Einstein frame universe describes the late-time evolution of the physical universe, which is driven by dark energy and non-relativistic matter. The Brans–Dicke theory of gravity is considered to be the dual scalar–tensor theory in the Jordan frame. We show that an Einstein frame universe, with cosmological evolution of the $$\Lambda $$ Λ CDM model, always corresponds to a bouncing Jordan frame universe governed by a Brans–Dicke theory. On the other hand, quintessence models of dark energy with non-relativistic matter component are shown to be always dual to a Brans–Dicke Jordan frame with a turn-around, i.e., a bounce or a collapse. The evolution of the equation of state of the quintessence field determines whether the turn-around is a bounce or a collapse. The point of the Jordan frame turn-around for all the cases can be tuned anywhere by choosing an appropriate Brans–Dicke parameter. This essentially leads to alternative descriptions of the late-time evolution of the physical universe, in terms of bouncing or collapsing Brans–Dicke universes in the Jordan frame. Therefore, the effect of dark energy can equivalently be seen as collapse of space in a conformally connected universe. We further study the stability of such conformal maps against linear perturbations. The effective bouncing and collapsing descriptions of the current accelerating universe may have interesting implications for the evolutions of perturbations and quantum fluctuations in the cosmological background.