State of matter at high density and entropy bounds

Entropy of all systems that we understand well is proportional to their volumes except for black holes given by their horizon area. This makes the microstates of any quantum theory of gravity drastically different from the ordinary matter. Because of the assumption that black holes are the maximum entropy states, there have been many conjectures that put the area, defined one way or another, as a bound on the entropy in a given region of spacetime. Here, we construct a simple model with entropy proportional to volume which exceeds the entropy of a single black hole. We show that a homogeneous cosmology filled with this gas exceeds one of the tightest entropy bounds, the covariant entropy bound and discuss the implications.

SPACETIME SINGULARITIES: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Recent developments concerning oscillatory spacelike singularities in general relativity are taking place on two fronts. The first treats generic singularities in spatially homogeneous cosmology, most notably Bianchi types VIII and IX. The second deals with generic oscillatory singularities in inhomogeneous cosmologies, especially those with two commuting spacelike Killing vectors. This paper describes recent progress in these two areas: in the spatially homogeneous case, focus is on mathematically rigorous results, while analytical and numerical results concerning generic behavior and so-called recurring spike formation are the main topics in the inhomogeneous case. Unifying themes are connections between asymptotic behavior, hierarchical structures and solution generating techniques, which provide hints for a link between the nature of generic singularities and a hierarchy of hidden asymptotic symmetries.

RECORDS THEORY

In quantum gravity, one seeks to combine quantum mechanics and general relativity. In attempting to do so, one comes across the "problem of time" impasse: the notion of time is conceptually different in each of these theories. In this paper, I consider the timeless records approach to resolving this. Records are localized, information-containing subconfigurations of a single instant. Records theory is the study of these and of how science (or history) is to be abstracted from correlations between them. I critically evaluate motivations for this approach that have previously appeared in the literature. I provide a ground-level structure for records theory and discuss what kind of further tools are needed, illustrated with some toy models: ordinary mechanics, relational particle dynamics, detector models and inhomogeneous perturbations about homogeneous cosmology.