The Mixmaster cosmological metrics

We investigate Bianchi type IX ''Mixmaster'' universes within the framework of the low-energy tree-level effective action for string theory, which (when the ''stringy'' 2-form axion potential vanishes) is formally the same as the Brans-Dicke action with $\omega =-1$. We show that, unlike the case of general relativity in vacuum, there is no Mixmaster chaos in these string cosmologies. In the Einstein frame an infinite sequence of chaotic oscillations of the scale factors on a...

We present a new numerical algorithm for evolving the Mixmaster spacetimes. By using symplectic integration techniques to take advantage of the exact Taub solution for the scattering between asymptotic Kasner regimes, we evolve these spacetimes with higher accuracy using much larger time steps than previously possible. The longer Mixmaster evolution thus allowed enables detailed comparison with the Belinskii, Khalatnikov, Lifshitz (BKL) approximate Mixmaster dynamics. In part...

Description of the magnetic Bianchi VI$_0$ cosmologies of LeBlanc, Kerr, and Wainwright in the formalisms both of Belinskii, Khalatnikov, and Lifshitz, and of Misner allows qualitative understanding of the Mixmaster-like singularity in those models.

We consider the dynamics towards the initial singularity of Bianchi type IX vacuum and orthogonal perfect fluid models with a linear equation of state. The `Bianchi type IX attractor theorem' states that the past asymptotic behavior of generic type IX solutions is governed by Bianchi type I and II vacuum states (Mixmaster attractor). We give a comparatively short and self-contained new proof of this theorem. The proof we give is interesting in itself, but more importantly it ...

We comment on an analysis by Contopoulos et al. which demonstrates that the governing six-dimensional Einstein equations for the mixmaster space-time metric pass the ARS or reduced Painlev\'{e} test. We note that this is the case irrespective of the value, $I$, of the generating Hamiltonian which is a constant of motion. For $I < 0$ we find numerous closed orbits with two unstable eigenvalues strongly indicating that there cannot exist two additional first integrals apart fro...

Belinski, Khalatnikov and Lifshitz (BKL) pioneered the study of the statistical properties of the never-ending oscillatory behavior (among successive Kasner epochs) of the geometry near a space-like singularity. We show how the use of a "cosmological billiard" description allows one to refine and deepen the understanding of these statistical properties. Contrary to previous treatments, we do not quotient the dynamics by its discrete symmetry group (of order 6), thereby uncove...

According to the Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz conjecture, close to a spacelike singularity different spatial points decouple, and the dynamics can be described in terms of the Mixmaster (vacuum Bianchi IX) model. In order to understand the role played by quantum-gravity effects in this context, in the present work we consider the semiclassical behavior of this model. Classically, this system undergoes a series of transitions between Kasner epochs, which are described by a sp...

We analyze the quantum dynamics of the Bianchi Type IX model, as described in the so-called polymer representation of quantum mechanics, to characterize the modifications that a discrete na- ture in the anisotropy variables of the Universe induces on the morphology of the cosmological sin- gularity. We first perform a semiclassical analysis, to be regarded as the zeroth-order approximation of a WKB (Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin) approximation of the quantum dynamics, and demonst...

We introduce consideration of a new factor, synchronisation of spacetime Mixmaster oscillations, that may play a simplifying role in understanding the nature of the general inhomogeneous cosmological solution to Einstein's equations. We conjecture that, on approach to a singularity, the interaction of spacetime Mixmaster oscillations in different regions of an inhomogeneous universe can produce a synchronisation of these oscillations through a coupling to their mean field in ...

The Mixmaster solution to Einstein field equations was examined by C. Misner in an effort to better understand the dynamics of the early universe. We highlight the importance of the quantum version of this model for early universe. This quantum version and its semi-classical portraits are yielded through affine and standard coherent state quantizations and more generally affine and Weyl-Heisenberg covariant integral quantizations. The adiabatic and vibronic approximations wid...