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Evolution to a smooth universe in an ekpyrotic contracting phase with<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>w</mml:mi><mml:mo>></mml:mo><mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:math>
A period of slow contraction with equation of state $w>1$, known as an ekpyrotic phase, has been shown to flatten and smooth the universe if it begins the phase with small perturbations. In this paper, we explore how robust and powerful the ekpyrotic smoothing mechanism is by beginning with highly …