Elements of string cosmology

Abstract

Aspects of string cosmology for critical and non-critical strings are discussed emphasizing the necessity to account for the dilaton dynamics for a proper incorporation of "large-small" duality. This drastically modifies the intuition one has with Einstein's gravity. For example winding modes, even though contributing to the energy density, oppose expansion and if not annihilated will stop the expansion. Moreover we find that the radiation dominated era of the standard cosmology emerges quite naturally in string cosmology. Our analysis of non-critical string cosmology provides a reinterpretation of the (universal cover of the) recently studied two-dimensional black hole solution as a conformal realization of cosmological solutions found previously by Mueller.