Nonsingular Promises from Born-Infeld Gravity

Born-Infeld determinantal gravity formulated in Weitzenböck spacetime is discussed in the context of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) cosmologies. It is shown how the standard model big bang singularity is absent in certain spatially flat FRW spacetimes, where the high energy regime is characterized by a de Sitter inflationary stage of geometrical character, i.e., without the presence of the inflaton field. This taming of the initial singularity is also achieved for some spatially curved FRW manifolds where the singularity is replaced by a de Sitter stage or a big bounce of the scale factor depending on certain combinations of free parameters appearing in the action. Unlike other Born-Infeld-like theories in vogue, the one here presented is also capable of deforming vacuum general relativistic solutions.