Constraining holographic inflation with WMAP

TL;DR

This paper explores a holographic model of early universe inflation, estimating its parameters using WMAP data, and compares its fit to standard LCDM, suggesting future Planck data could decisively test it.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic inflation model with specific parameters and evaluates its consistency with observational data, providing a novel approach to early universe cosmology.

Findings

WMAP data constrains the model parameters

Holographic model fits data slightly worse than LCDM

Future Planck data could definitively test the model

Abstract

In a class of recently proposed models, the early universe is strongly coupled and described holographically by a three-dimensional, weakly coupled, super-renormalizable quantum field theory. This scenario leads to a power spectrum of scalar perturbations that differs from the usual empirical LCDM form and the predictions of generic models of single field, slow roll inflation. This spectrum is characterized by two parameters: an amplitude, and a parameter g related to the coupling constant of the dual theory. We estimate these parameters, using WMAP and other astrophysical data. We compute Bayesian evidence for both the holographic model and standard LCDM and find that their difference is not significant, although LCDM provides a somewhat better fit to the data. However, it appears that Planck will permit a definitive test of this holographic scenario.