Power-law bounces in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mi>f</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:math> gravity: Analysis of the ekpyros

We investigate the dynamics of the Friedmann-Lema\^{\i}tre-Robertson-Walker spacetime within the framework of $f(R)$ gravity using a compact, model-independent dynamical systems approach. By assuming a power-law scale factor, we explore ekpyrotic and accelerating solutions to address the big bang singularity. Our analysis demonstrates that a cosmological bounce, characterized by a transition from contraction to expansion, possibly avoids the singularity without directly using the Raychaudhuri equation, unlike previous approaches using specific $f(R)\ensuremath{\simeq}{R}^{n}$ forms. We identify a key fixed point in the phase space corresponding to the bounce, supported by perturbation analysis and qualitative description of trajectories in the phase space. The results suggest that $f(R)$ gravity provides a robust framework for nonsingular cosmologies.