Category:Holographic Universe

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The traditional point of view assumed that dominating part of degrees of freedom in our World are attributed to physical fields. However it became clear soon that such concept complicates the construction of Quantum Gravity: it is necessary to introduce small distance cutoffs for all integrals in the theory in order to make it sensible. As a consequence, our world should be described on a three-dimensional discrete lattice with the period of the order of Planck length. Lately some physicists share an even more radical point of view: instead of the three-dimensional lattice, complete description of Nature requires only a two-dimensional one, situated on the space boundary of our World. This approach is based on the so-called "holographic principle". The name is related to the optical hologram, which is essentially a two-dimensional record of a three-dimensional object. The holographic principle consists of two main statements:

1) All information contained in some region of space can be "recorded" (represented) on the boundary of that region.

2) The theory, formulated on the boundaries of the considered region of space, must have no more than one degree of freedom per Planck area: \begin{equation} \label{Hol_f:1} N\le \frac{A}{A_{pl}},\quad A_{pl}=\frac{G\hbar}{c^3}. \end{equation} \end{enumerate} Thus, the key piece in the holographic principle is the assumption that all the information about the Universe can be encoded on some two-dimensional surface - the holographic screen. Such approach leads to a new interpretation of cosmological acceleration and to an absolutely unusual understanding of Gravity. The gravity is understood as an entropy force, caused by variation of information connected to positions of material bodies. More precisely, the quantity of information related to matter and its position is measured in terms of entropy. Relation between the entropy and the information states that the information change is exactly the negative entropy change $\Delta I=-\Delta S$. Entropy change due to matter displacement leads to the so-called entropy force, which, as will be proven below, has the form of gravity. Its origin therefore lies in the universal tendency of any macroscopic theory to maximize the entropy. The dynamics can be constructed in terms of entropy variation and it does not depend on the details of microscopic theory. In particular, there is no fundamental field associated with the entropy force. The entropy forces are typical for macroscopic systems like colloids and biophysical systems. Big colloid molecules, placed in thermal environment of smaller particles, feel the entropy forces. Osmose is another phenomenon governed by the entropy forces.

Probably the best known example of the entropy force is the elasticity of a polymer molecule. A single polymer molecule can be modeled as a composition of many monomers of fixed length. Each monomer can freely rotate around the fixation point and choose any spacial direction. Each of such configurations has the same energy. When the polymer molecule is placed into a thermal bath, it prefers to form a ring as the entropically most preferable configuration: there are many more such configurations when the polymer molecule is short, than those when it is stretched. The statistical tendency to transit into the maximum entropy state transforms into the macroscopic force, in the considered case - into the elastic force.

Let us consider a small piece of holographic screen and a particle of mass $m$ approaching it. According to the holographic principle, the particle affects the amount of the information (and therefore of the entropy) stored on the screen. It is natural to assume that entropy variation near the screen is linear on the displacement $\Delta x$: \begin{equation} \Delta S = 2\pi k_B \frac{mc}{\hbar} \Delta x. \label{delta_s} \end{equation} The factor $2\pi$ is introduced for convenience, which the reader will appreciate solving the problems of this Chapter. In order to understand why this quantity should be proportional to mass, let us imagine that the particle has split into two or more particles of smaller mass. Each of those particles produces its own entropy change when displaced by $\Delta x$. As entropy and mass are both additive, then it is natural that the former is proportional to the latter. According to the first law of thermodynamics, the entropy force related to information variation satisfies the equation \begin{equation} F\Delta x = T\Delta S. \label{delta_x} \end{equation} If we know the entropy gradient, which can be found from (\ref{delta_s}), and the screen temperature, we can calculate the entropy force.

An observer moving with acceleration $a$, feels the temperature (the Unruh temperature) \begin{equation} \label{Hol_f_Unruh:4} k_B T_U=\frac{1}{2\pi}\frac\hbar c a. \end{equation} Let us assume that the total energy of the system equals $E$. Let us make a simple assumption that the energy is uniformly distributed over all $N$ bits of information on the holographic screen. The temperature is then defined as the average energy per bit: \begin{equation} E =\frac12 N k_B T. \label{average_e} \end{equation} Equations (\ref{delta_s})-(\ref{average_e}) allow one to describe the holographic dynamics, and as a particular case - the dynamics of the Universe, and all that without the notion of Gravity.

Pages in category "Holographic Universe"

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