Information Equation of State

TL;DR

This paper applies Landauer's principle to the universe's information content, proposing an information equation of state that closely matches dark energy and links cosmic evolution to star formation, offering insights into the cosmic coincidence problem.

Contribution

It introduces an information-based equation of state for the universe that connects dark energy to matter and star formation, providing a novel perspective on cosmic acceleration.

Findings

Information energy density remains nearly constant over a wide redshift range.

The universe's information content of 10^87 bits suffices to explain dark energy.

The equation of state parameter w is close to -1 for much of cosmic history.

Abstract

Landauer's principle is applied to information in the universe. Once stars began forming, the increasing proportion of matter at high stellar temperatures compensated for the expanding universe to provide a near constant information energy density. The information equation of state was close to the dark energy value, w = -1, for a wide range of redshifts, 10> z >0.8, over one half of cosmic time. A reasonable universe information bit content of only 10^87 bits is sufficient for information energy to account for all dark energy. A time varying equation of state with a direct link between dark energy and matter, and linked to star formation in particular, is clearly relevant to the cosmic coincidence problem.In answering the "Why now?" question we wonder "What next?" as we expect the information equation of state to tend towards w = 0 in the future.