Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

THE RETURN OF THE PHOENIX UNIVERSE

2009; World Scientific; Volume: 18; Issue: 14 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1142/s0218271809015977

ISSN

1793-6594

Autores

Jean-Luc Lehners, Paul J. Steinhardt, Neil Turok,

Tópico(s)

Black Holes and Theoretical Physics

Resumo

Georges Lemaitre introduced the term "phoenix universe" to describe an oscillatory cosmology with alternating periods of gravitational collapse and expansion. This model is ruled out observationally, because it requires a supercritical mass density and cannot accommodate dark energy. However, a new cyclic theory of the universe has been proposed that evades these problems. In a recent elaboration of this picture, almost the entire universe observed today is fated to become entrapped inside black holes, but a tiny region will emerge from these ashes like a phoenix to form an even larger smooth, flat universe filled with galaxies, stars, planets, and, presumably, life. Survival depends crucially on dark energy and suggests a reason why its density is small and positive today.

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