Superluminary Universe: A Possible Solution to the Initial Value Problem in Cosmology

TL;DR

This work proposes a superluminal cosmology in which a first-order phase transition at a critical time $t_c$ spontaneously breaks local Lorentz invariance, temporarily elevating the speed of light to a large value and allowing causal contact across the early Universe. In the broken phase, a Higgs mechanism yields a mass spectrum with massive vector fields and a massive Higgs, and energy-momentum conservation is violated ($T^{\mu\nu}_{;\nu}\neq 0$) while the geometry adopts a Newtonian FRW-like form; after $t_c$ symmetry is restored and standard light speed is recovered. The model predicts a scale-invariant, Gaussian spectrum of primordial fluctuations generated by the Higgs field during the transition, with COBE-compatible amplitude achieved for a quartic potential with $\lambda\sim 10^{-5}$, offering an inflation-free alternative to solving the initial value problem. It also discusses how the horizon, flatness, and monopole problems are addressed and compares the resulting perturbation predictions to inflationary expectations, highlighting potential observational signatures and theoretical implications for quantum gravity as $c_0$ grows large.

Abstract

The spontaneous breaking of local Lorentz invariance in the early Universe, associated with a first order phase transition at a critical time $t_c$, generates a large increase in the speed of light and a superluminary communication of information occurs, allowing all regions in the Universe to be causally connected. This solves the horizon problem, leads to a mechanism of monopole suppression in cosmology and can resolve the flatness problem. After the critical time $t_c$, local Lorentz (and diffeomorphism) invariance is restored and light travels at its presently measured speed. The kinematical and dynamical aspects of the generation of quantum fluctuations in the superluminary Universe are investigated. A scale invariant prediction for the fluctuation density amplitude is obtained.