New class of inhomogeneous cosmological perfect-fluid solutions without big-bang singularity

A new class of exact solutions to Einstein's field equations with a perfect-fluid source is presented. The solutions describe spatially inhomogeneous cosmological models and have a realistic equation of state p=ρ/3. The properties of the solutions are discussed. The most remarkable feature is the absence of an initial singularity, the curvature and matter invariants being regular and smooth everywhere. We also present an alternative interpretation of the solution as a globally regular cylindrically symmetric space-time