HOLOGRAPHIC SPACETIME

Abstract

The theory of holographic spacetime (HST) generalizes both string theory and quantum field theory (QFT). It provides a geometric rationale for supersymmetry (SUSY) and a formalism in which super-Poincare invariance follows from Poincare invariance. HST unifies particles and black holes, realizing both as excitations of noncommutative geometrical variables on a holographic screen. Compact extra dimensions are interpreted as finite-dimensional unitary representations of super-algebras, and have no moduli. Full field theoretic Fock spaces, and continuous moduli are both emergent phenomena of super-Poincare invariant limits in which the number of holographic degrees of freedom goes to infinity. Finite radius de Sitter (dS) spaces have no moduli, and break SUSY with a gravitino mass scaling like Λ1/4. In regimes where the Covariant Entropy Bound is saturated, QFT is not a good description in HST, and inflation is such a regime. Following ideas of Jacobson, the gravitational and inflaton fields are emergent classical variables, describing the geometry of an underlying HST model, rather than "fields associated with a microscopic string theory". The phrase in quotes is meaningless in the HST formalism, except in asymptotically flat and AdS spacetimes, and some relatives of these.