The Big Bang model is now both theoretically and empirically well established, although it does not explain the mystery of the very beginning of our universe. Over recent years, however, new developments open up the exciting prospect of going "beyond" the Big Bang and even of finding a physical explanation for it. Surprisingly, the ancient idea of a past-eternal universe is being revived, but a variety of other fascinating new approaches -- from the Holographic Universe to Cosmic Natural Selection -- are also being pursued. This book provides an up-to-date overview of each of these competing scenarios with original contributions from the world's leading researchers in cosmology, who describe their own work and results in a manner understandable even to non-specialists. "The stellar line-up of contributors to this volume are working at the cutting edge of cosmological research, and are poised to take our understanding of the universe beyond the big bang into an even stranger realm." - Paul Davies. "This book provides a wonderful overview of current ideas on these ultimate cosmic questions, written by scientists working at the forefront of cosmological research."-- Alex Vilenkin.

Philosopher of science (Center for Philosophy and Foundations of Science, University of Gießen)Astronomy and physics editor of bild der wissenschaft, one of the largest/most influential monthly science magazines in GermanyMany contributions to cosmology and philosophy of science and natureFor book cover: Rudy Vaas, born 1966 in Stuttgart, Germany, is a philosopher of science, specializing in modern cosmology; he is also the physics and astronomy editor of the German science magazine "bild der wissenschaft". He has published numerous articles on quantum gravity, the origin and fate of the universe, the problems of space, time and the laws of nature, the anthropic principle, the multiverse and related topics. He is the author of several best-selling popular science books, dealing among other things with space-time anomalies and the life and work of Stephen Hawking.

Introduction: Beyond the Big Bang.- Cosmic Inflation: How the Universe Became Large and Plentiful.- Eternal Inflation: Past and Future.- The Big Bang Singularity: Conditions and Avoidance.- Big Bounce: Beyond the Threshold of Classical Cosmology.- The Emergent Universe: Arising from a Static State Without a Singularity.- Quantum Cosmology: Whence and Whither.- Quantum Origins: Gravitational Instability of the Vacuum and the Cosmological Problem.- Island Cosmology: The Universe from a Quantum Fluctuation.- Cosmology from the Top Down: Anthropic Reasoning and Prediction in a Quantum Universe.- Loop Quantum Gravity and Cosmology: Avoiding the Big Bang Singularity from First Principles.- Loop Quantum Cosmology: Effective Theories and Oscillating Universes.- The Holographic Universe: Space and Time in String Theory.- The Pre-Big Bang Scenario: String Theory and a Longer History of Time.- String Gas and String Inflation: Cosmology with Extra Dimensions.- The String Landscape: Exploring the Multiverse.- Selection of Initial Conditions: The Origin of Our Universe from the Multiverse.- Cosmic Natural Selection: Status and Implications.- The Cyclic Universe: Ekpyrosis, Dark Energy and Large-Scale Structure.- The Arrow of Time: The problem of Cosmic Initial Conditions.- Self-Creating Universe: A Time Loop at the Beginning.- (Quasi)-Steady-State Scenarios: An Alternative to Big Bang Cosmology?.- The Mathematical Universe: Eternal Laws and the Illusion of Time.- Eternal Existence: The Furthest Future.- Index.