Emergent Universe

An emergent Universe scenario is a cosmological model that features the Universe being in a low-entropy "dormant" state before the Big Bang or the beginning of the cosmic inflation. Several such scenarios have been proposed in the literature.

"Cosmic egg" scenarios
A popular version proposed by George Ellis and others involves the Universe shaped like a 3-dimensional sphere (or another compact manifold) until a rolling scalar field begins inflating it. These models are notable as potentially avoiding both a Big Bang singularity and a quantum gravity era.

Criticism
This proposal has been criticised by Vilenkin and Mithani and on different grounds by Aguirre and Kehayias as inconsistent if quantum-mechanical effects are taken into account.