Comprehensive study of bouncing cosmological models in f(Q, T) theory

Abstract The main objective of this article is to investigate the viability of bouncing cosmological scenarios using different forms of scale factors with perfect matter configuration in the framework of extended symmetric teleparallel theory. This modified proposal is defined by the function f ( Q , T ), where Q characterizes non-metricity and T denotes the trace of energy-momentum tensor. We investigate the modified field equations of this theory using different parametric values of the Hubble parameter and non-metricity to derive viable solutions. These solutions are relevant in various cosmological bounce models such as symmetric-bounce, super-bounce, oscillatory-bounce, matter-bounce and exponential-bounce models. Furthermore, we examine the behavior of energy density and pressure to analyze the characteristics of dark energy. A comprehensive analysis is also conducted to explore the behavior of the equation of state parameter and deceleration parameter to examine the evolutionary eras of the cosmos. Our findings show that the f ( Q , T ) gravity describes the cosmic expansion in the vicinity of the bouncing point during the early and late times of cosmic evolution.