Session Y6 - Cosmology, Particle Astrophysics and Gravitational Wave Astronomy.
ORAL session, Tuesday afternoon, April 23
Aztec, Albuquerque Convention Center
The Hot Big Bang plus inflation is the standard model of the early universe. I will present a new cosmological model which uses the observed cosmic dark energy as initial conditions for an inflationary phase which mimics a Hot Big Bang. This inflationary phase (dubbed rejuvenation) will be produced if the effective cosmological constant increases with time. The universe undergoes superexponential expansion until it resumes radiation domination, leaving it identical to a Hot Big Bang in all measurable respects but avoiding an initial singularity. This process can produce adiabatic density perturbations as favored by recent observations of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropy, although a blue tilt to the primordial power spectrum is predicted.