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This review article is devoted to analyze the main properties characterizing the cosmological singularity associated to the homogeneous and inhomogeneous Mixmaster model. After the introduction of the main tools required to treat the cosmological issue, we review in details the main results got along the last forty years on the Mixmaster topic. We firstly assess the classical picture of the homogeneous chaotic cosmologies and, after a presentation of the canonical method for the quantization, we develop the quantum Mixmaster behavior. Finally, we extend both the classical and quantum features to the fully inhomogeneous case. Our survey analyzes the fundamental framework of the Mixmaster picture and completes it by accounting for recent and peculiar outstanding results.are obtained requiring the action for the matter S m introduced in Eq. (2.1.11) to be invariant under diffeomorphisms. For the Einstein equations, the Bianchi identities ∇ i G ij = 0 may be viewed as a consequence of the invariance of the Hilbert action under diffeomorphisms. Let us now list the principal aspects of the three fields under consideration.• The energy-momentum tensor of a perfect fluid is given bywhere u i is a unit time-like vector field representing the four-velocity of the fluid. The scalar functions p and ρ are the energy density and the pressure, respectively, as2.8b) where j k is the current density four-vector of electric charge and [ ] denote the antisymmetric sum, or in the forms language equations (2.2.8) are written as d ⋆ F = 4π ⋆ j (2.2.9a) dF = 0 (2.2.9b)where d is the exterior derivative and ⋆ is the Hodge star operator [505,370].

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We outline the covariant nature,with respect to the choice of a reference frame, of the chaos characterizing the generic cosmological solution near the initial singularity, i.e. the so-called inhomogeneous Mixmaster model. Our analysis is based on a "gauge" independent ADM-reduction of the dynamics to the physical degrees of freedom. The out coming picture shows how the inhomogeneous Mixmaster model is isomorphic point by point in space to a billiard on a Lobachevsky plane. Indeed, the existence of an asymptotic (energy-like) constant of the motion allows to construct the Jacobi metric associated to the geodesic flow and to calculate a non-zero Lyapunov exponent in each space point. The chaos covariance emerges from the independence of our scheme with respect to the form of the lapse function and the shift vector; the origin of this result relies on the dynamical decoupling of the space-points which takes place near the singularity, due to the asymptotic approach of the potential term to infinite walls. At the ground of the obtained dynamical scheme is the choice of Misner-Chitrĺike variables which allows to fix the billiard potential walls.