Consider a surface
on a stationary null surface
N (a Rindler horizon) and its deformation along
N toward the future, so that the deformation vector
is future-directed and the outside is chosen to be the side towards which
points (see Fig.1). A measure of distinguishability between any two states of an arbitrary quantum system is relative entropy. It is a quantity of particular significance in quantum information theory. Its illuminating use in the gravitational context was put by Casini[
38]. On the states restricted to this causal horizon, the relative entropy is given by
At late times on this causal horizon, we take the matter entropy
to stop evolving such that
. This essentially requires the quantum expansion
on the causal horizon since for the stationary causal horizon, the classical expansion vanishes,
. Using the QNEC, we can now write Eq.(
38) as an inequality given by
The relative entropy can be written as the statement of the Bekenstein Bound as
where
is a localized energy and
,
being vacuum entropy. Since
and the vacuum entropy is independent of the affine parameter
(the vacuum state on the pencil is invariant under translations in the affine parameter), Eq.(
39) takes the form
Since, in the local neighborhood of any point
p, we can define a Rindler horizon, this result holds for the entire spacetime points. We now apply this result to the universe as a whole. Since the arguments presented hold locally, the extension to the entire universe requires a global existence of a causal horizon. This can be circumvented by considering a universe-antiuniverse pair, in which case, the junction (
) of the universe-antiuniverse pair which causally disconnects the pair (see Fig.2) naturally serves as the stationary causal horizon and the result of Eq.(
41) can be extended globally. This is similar to the existence of the Unruh effect for a local Rindler horizon to that of the Hawking effect for a global event horizon of a black hole. The affine parameter
can now be taken to be the cosmic time
t and the total energy
E of the universe is constant. Take the radius of the boundary of the universe to be
R (with
R possibly infinity), such that the bulk of size
L always satisfies
. In this limit,
and we can finally write Eq.(
41) as
Thus, the boundary of the universe expands in an accelerated manner. It should be noted that the sign of
can be anything, including negative, but at late times, the matter entropy stops evolving such that the quantum expansion tends to zero,
, and in this case, the expansion of the universe is accelerating without need of any external agent, all by itself!
Figure 3.
A Rindler horizon shown by a bold line of a 2-surface element P. To the right Rindler wedge in the region with Cauchy surface the spatial half-plane V defined by at , we can apply Casini’s idea.
Figure 4.
A universe-antiuniverse pair. The surface at acts as a causal horizon.