Bouncing Cosmologies

Principal Investigators

Anna I. (Ijjas) Rosenzweig

Senior Research Scientist at New York University. Her research lies at the intersection of gravitational theory and cosmology. She uses the tools of both general relativity and quantum field theory to study different models of the universe with the aim of ultimately developing an improved cosmology that provides an explanation of current observational data.

Paul J. Steinhardt

Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton University. His research spans problems in particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology, condensed matter physics and geophysics. He is one of the architects of the inflationary theory. More recently, he proposed the "ekpyrotic model" of the universe, a radical alternative to big bang/inflationary cosmology. He also introduced the concept of ‘quintessence’ and various novel models for dark matter, including self-interacting dark matter.

Associates

David Garfinkle

Professor of Physics at Oakland University. His research is in numerical relativity: the use of computer simulations to study the properties of singularities, critical gravitational collapse, cosmic censorship, and the evolution of inhomogeneities in the early universe.

V. (Slava) Mukhanov

Professor of Physics at Ludwig-Maximilians University. His research interests include inflationary and bouncing models of the early universe, cosmic microwave background fluctuations, dark energy, quantum and classical black holes, and quantum cosmology.

Frans Pretorius

Professor of Physics at Princeton University. His research focus is general relativity. He uses numerical solution methods to study the dynamical strong-field regime of the theory, including gravitational-wave sources, black holes, and cosmological singularities.