STABILITY OF COSMOLOGICAL MODELS

A new notion of stability recently introduced by Zeeman is applied in the cosmological setting by considering a number of simple dissipative cosmological models which are expressible as gradient fields. Despite the simplicity and the unrealisticness of some these models, this study we hope will give some idea as to the potential usefulness of the basic idea for models with more complicated attractors especially where the underlying dynamics may be chaotic and structurally unstable. Italso highlights the role of dissipation in connection with stability and its potential relevance in dealing with the question of measure on the initial states of the universe. © 1990.