Conformal symmetry and deflationary gas universe

Abstract

We describe the ``deflationary'' evolution from an initial de Sitter phase to a subsequent Friedmann-Lema\^ıtre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) period as a specific non-equilibrium configuration of a self-interacting gas. The transition dynamics corresponds to a conformal, timelike symmetry of an ``optical'' metric, characterized by a refraction index of the cosmic medium which continously decreases from a very large initial value to unity in the FLRW phase.

Comments: 10 pages, to appear in "Exact Solutions and Scalar Fields in Gravity: Recent Developments", ed. by A. Macias, J. Cervantes-Cota, and C. Lämmerzahl, Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001