Big-bounce genesis

We report on the possibility of using dark matter particle's mass and its interaction cross section as a smoking gun signal of the existence of a big bounce at the early stage in the evolution of our currently observed universe. A model independent study of dark matter production in the pre-bounce contraction and the post-bounce expansion epochs of the bounce universe reveals a new venue for achieving the observed relic abundance of our present universe, in which a significantly smaller amount of dark matter with a smaller cross section---as compared to the prediction of standard cosmology---is produced and the information about the bounce universe evolution is preserved by the out-of-thermal-equilibrium process. Once the value of dark matter mass and interaction cross section are obtained by direct detection in laboratories, this alternative route becomes a signature prediction of the bounce universe scenario.