Thanks for that summary, De. Yes, as I recall, that is what Penrose speculates. He wrote a book about his theory in 2011: Cycles of Time. And in that book he suggested some things to look for as evidence that the Big Bang Theory of origin was incomplete. And some other physicists did some looking and so we have this to chew on:
http://physicsworld.com/a/new-evidence-for-cyclic-universe-claimed-by-roger-penrose-and-colleagues/
Hot spots: do the Planck CMB data contain evidence of a cyclical cosmology? (Courtesy: ESA and the Planck Collaboration)
Unexpected hot spots in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) could have been produced by black holes evaporating before the Big Bang. So says a trio of scientists led by mathematical physicist Roger Penrose in a paper presenting new evidence that our universe is just one stage in a potentially infinite cycle of cosmic extinction and rebirth. Other researchers, however, remain sceptical that the microwave background really does contain signs from a previous “aeon”.
According to standard cosmology, the universe underwent a very brief but exceptionally intense expansion just after the Big Bang. This period of “inflation” would have ironed out any irregularities in the structure of the early universe, leading to the very uniform cosmos that we observe around us.
However, Penrose, based at the University of Oxford , has developed a rival theory known as “conformal cyclic cosmology“ (CCC) which posits that the universe became uniform before, rather than after, the Big Bang. The idea is that the universe cycles from one aeon to the next, each time starting out infinitely small and ultra-smooth before expanding and generating clumps of matter. That matter eventually gets sucked up by supermassive black holes, which over the very long term disappear by continuously emitting Hawking radiation. This process restores uniformity and sets the stage for the next Big Bang.
Losing mass
CCC has met with scepticism from many cosmologists since being put forward in 2005, not least because the matching up of an infinitely big universe in one aeon with an infinitely small one in the next requires that all particles lose their mass when the universe gets very old. However, in 2010 Penrose and Vahe Gurzadyan of the Yerevan Physics Institute in Armenia claimed that they had found evidence to support CCC in the form of rings of uniform temperature within the CMB. Those rings, the idea went, would be the signature in our aeon of spherically-emitted gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes in the previous aeon. (continues, along with nice picture of the universe which supports his Theory)
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