Friedmann effective potential for matter, radiation and vacuum ($V(a)=-M/a-Q/a^2-L{a}^2$)

With nonnegative conserved pressureless matter and radiation in cosmology, set $M=(8\pi G/3){\rho }_m{a}^3$, $Q=(8\pi G/3){\rho }_r{a}^4$, and $L=(8\pi G/3){\rho }_{\Lambda }$. The Friedmann equation becomes $(da/dt{)}^2+V(a)=-k$. For negative vacuum density the potential rises strictly from negative infinity to positive infinity, so an expanding branch has one maximum scale factor. For positive vacuum density it has one maximum: energy above that maximum gives monotonic expansion or contraction, energy below it gives disjoint recollapsing and bouncing branches, and equality admits an Einstein static universe together with asymptotic monotonic branches.

For a FRW metric with positive scale factor, nonnegative dust and radiation, and negative vacuum density, the Friedmann acceleration equation gives $a_{tt}\le -{\omega }^{2}a$, with ${\omega }^2=8\pi G|{\rho }_{\Lambda }|/3$. At maximum expansion, $a(0)=a_{\max }$ and $a_t(0)=0$. The forced-oscillator integral formula gives $a(t)\le a_{\max }\cos (\omega t)$ until the first zero, since its forcing is nonpositive and its sine kernel is nonnegative for $0\le t\le \pi /(2\omega )$. Thus each half of the expansion-recollapse history lasts at most $\pi /(2\omega )$. Nonzero dust or radiation makes the endpoint a physical density singularity; the matter-free limit instead bounds the open anti-de Sitter coordinate patch.