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Accelerating cosmology from a holographic wormhole

Stefano Antonini, Petar Simidzija, Brian Swingle, Mark Van Raamsdonk

TL;DR

The paper introduces a holographic cosmology framework in which a four-dimensional universe emerges from Euclidean AdS wormholes described by a pair of 3D CFTs. It shows that time-dependent scalars associated with relevant CFT operators can provide a dynamical dark-energy-like potential, enabling a transient accelerating phase without inflation and a recollapse. Cosmological observables are computed via analytic continuation from the Euclidean/AdS wormhole geometry, tying large-scale structure data to a UV-complete holographic description. The work offers a new perspective on naturalness and the cosmological constant problem, suggesting new avenues for connecting quantum gravity to observable cosmology.

Abstract

We consider cosmological models in which the cosmology is related via analytic continuation to a Euclidean asymptotically AdS planar wormhole geometry defined holographically via a pair of three-dimensional Euclidean CFTs. We argue that these models can generically give rise to an accelerating phase for the cosmology due to the potential energy of scalar fields associated with relevant scalar operators in the CFT. We explain how cosmological observables are related to observables in the wormhole spacetime and argue that this leads to a novel perspective on naturalness puzzles in cosmology.

Accelerating cosmology from a holographic wormhole

TL;DR

The paper introduces a holographic cosmology framework in which a four-dimensional universe emerges from Euclidean AdS wormholes described by a pair of 3D CFTs. It shows that time-dependent scalars associated with relevant CFT operators can provide a dynamical dark-energy-like potential, enabling a transient accelerating phase without inflation and a recollapse. Cosmological observables are computed via analytic continuation from the Euclidean/AdS wormhole geometry, tying large-scale structure data to a UV-complete holographic description. The work offers a new perspective on naturalness and the cosmological constant problem, suggesting new avenues for connecting quantum gravity to observable cosmology.

Abstract

We consider cosmological models in which the cosmology is related via analytic continuation to a Euclidean asymptotically AdS planar wormhole geometry defined holographically via a pair of three-dimensional Euclidean CFTs. We argue that these models can generically give rise to an accelerating phase for the cosmology due to the potential energy of scalar fields associated with relevant scalar operators in the CFT. We explain how cosmological observables are related to observables in the wormhole spacetime and argue that this leads to a novel perspective on naturalness puzzles in cosmology.
Paper Structure (11 sections, 8 equations, 3 figures)

This paper contains 11 sections, 8 equations, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction.
  2. Time-symmetric cosmology from Euclidean wormholes
  3. Time dependent scalars are generic
  4. Accelerating cosmology from scalars.
  5. Extracting cosmological observables.
  6. The effective field theory.
  7. The cosmological constant.
  8. Symmetry breaking.
  9. A new perspective on naturalness
  10. Discussion.
  11. Acknowledgements.

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Left: time-symmetric $\Lambda < 0$ cosmology. Right: replacing $t = i \tau$ gives a Euclidean wormhole with two asymptotically AdS regions. The effective field theory description of such a wormhole may require coupling the fields in the two asymptotic regions via an auxiliary non-gravitational field theory (green).
  • Figure 2: Typical potential for scalar field associated relevant operator in the dual CFT. Paths indicate scalar evolution in the wormhole from $\tau = -\infty$ to $\tau = \infty$ and in the cosmology from big bang to big crunch. The initial positive values of the potential can give rise to a phase of accelerated expansion before deceleration and collapse.
  • Figure 3: Space of model parameter $g$ and initial condition $\phi_0$ for the exponential potential of (\ref{['eq:Vpot']}) and (\ref{['eq:intpot']}).