Bouncing cosmologies

We review the general features of nonsingular universes (i.e. those that go from an era of accelerated collapse to an expanding era without displaying a singularity) as well as cyclic universes. We discuss the mechanisms behind the bounce, and analyze examples of solutions that implement these mechanisms. Observational consequences of such regular cosmologies are also considered, with emphasis in the behavior of perturbations. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.