- Letter
Geodesic completeness, cosmological bounces, and inflation
Phys. Rev. D 110, L061304 – Published 18 September, 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.L061304
Abstract
The question of geodesic completeness of cosmological spacetimes has recently received renewed scrutiny. A particularly interesting result is the observation that the well-known Borde-Guth-Vilenkin (BGV) theorem may misdiagnose geodesically complete cosmologies. We propose a simple amendment to the BGV theorem which addresses such loopholes while retaining much of its generality. We give straightforward proofs of some recently offered conjectures concerning (generalized) Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker spacetimes; geodesic completeness implies (i) the existence of a bounce, loitering phase or an emergent cosmology, and (ii) a phase of accelerated expansion with strictly increasing Hubble rate. Our results are purely kinematic and do not assume general relativity or energy conditions.