Bounce Cosmology

Dear Colleagues,

Research on cosmology has been greatly developed over the past few decades, from both observational and theoretical points of view. Particularly, with the help of a series of cosmic microwave background observations, we are fortunate to be able to witness the golden age that the probe of the earliest moments of our Universe has become possible. The paradigm of inflationary cosmology, which was proposed in previous decades, was applied to understand the initial conditions issued in the hot big bang cosmology, and soon became the most prevailing theory describing the early universe. It is interesting to note that, however, that inflationary cosmology is not a unique paradigm describing the early universe. Moreover, general inflation models have difficulty in explaining the existence of the space-time singularity at the very moment that the universe was born. Bearing recent experimental developments and theoretical challenges in mind, many new proposals have been put forward by cosmologists for the theory of the early universe, beyond the paradigm of inflationary LCDM cosmology. Namely, there is a “pre big bang” scenario, the “ekpyrotic/cyclic universe” configuration, the reputed paradigm of the emergent universe, and from the perspective of phenomenological considerations, string gas cosmology, as well as the matter bounce scenario.

In the research field of bounce cosmology, together with the possible resolutions to the big bang singularity, a remarkable amount of progress has been made by cosmologists in the past decade. In light of recent extensive developments, the Universe Editorial Board has invited a number of major experts in this field to contribute to this Special Issue on theoretical developments as well as underlying challenges, related to bounce cosmology, and, mostly important, to explore the direction of cosmological study upon the big bang singularity in the future.

It is our great pleasure to serve as the Guest Editors of this Special Issue on “Bounce Cosmology”. We are very grateful to all authors who have contributed relevant research and the compiling of review articles. We expect that this Special Issue will shed light on developments regarding theoretical and observational cosmology in the near future. Finally, we thank assistant editors for their valuable contributions for the editorial work as well as the Universe for the publication of this issue.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Yi-Fu Cai
Dr. Chunshan Lin
Prof. Dr. Antonino Marciano
Guest Editors

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