The K-Pax idea that the Universe is constantly blowing up and contracting is not generally accepted by cosmologists today, although it has been one of the many interesting theories.
In the book "The Five Ages of the Universe" (
Hypography review) the authors argue that the universe will last for so long that all the matter in it will be exhausted before the cosmos eventually disappears.
However, some interesting ideas arise within something called "anthropic" theory, which claims that the Universe we live in is the way it is because we are here to observe it. This might lead to an obvious question: perhaps our universe is indeed one universe in a long sequence of universes, and only one of a multitude of parallell universes, born out of each other...much like evolution, in fact. Perhaps universes evolve and improve as well?
But my point is basically that if in fact our universe should collapse and regenerate, it would not be the same universe - I think this is an important point.
As to how this applies to time travel I don't know...just my 2 cents.
