Why Can’t the Universe Be Cyclic? Part 3: The Ekpyrotic Universe and Its Bouncing Branes

A cross-section of a Calabi-Yau manifold, a visualization of the extra dimensions invoked by string theory, the framework underlying ekpyrotic cosmology. Credit: Andrew J. Hanson / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).

The ekpyrotic theory tries to beat inflation with bouncing higher-dimensional branes, no singularity, and a universe that has always existed. A tour of the prettiest version of the idea and how it claims to handle flatness, dark energy, and the entropy that doomed earlier cyclic models.

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