Holographic Cosmology

Abstract

We describe a cosmology of the very early universe, based on the holographic principle of 't Hooft and Susskind. We have described the initial state as a dense black hole fluid. Here we present a mathematical model of this heuristic picture, as well as a non-rigorous discussion of how a more normal universe could evolve out of such a state. The gross features of the cosmology depend on a few parameters, which cannot yet be calculated from first principles. For some range of these parameters, microwave background fluctuations originate from fluctuations in the black hole fluid, and have characteristics different from those of most inflationary models.

This is an expanded version of an essay submitted to the Gravity Foundation Competition, 11 pages