From Planck Data to Planck Era: Observational Tests of Holographic Cosmology

Was the Universe a giant hologram?

11 July 2017

An international team of scientists has uncovered compelling evidence that our Universe could have started life as a hologram, a flat, two-dimensional surface that appears to have a third dimension, according to a study published in Physical Review Letters.

For more than four years the Planck satellite collected information from the electromagnetic radiation left over from the Big Bang, known as the ‘cosmic microwave background’. Now, an international team that included physicists from The University of Southampton, has used this data to investigate the origin and structure of our early Universe.

Finding irregularities between two- and three-dimensional models of the Universe, the researchers say the data suggest that in its very early stages, the Universe could have had a holographic structure that lasted for a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

The study shines further light on the creation and structure of our early Universe, and could lead to a better understanding of how space and time emerged.

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References

1. Physical Review Letters 118, 041301 (2017). doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.118.041301