A popular summary of the paper:
Cosmic inflation from entangled qubits: a white hole model for emergent spacetime
Imagine the Big Bang not as the beginning of spacetime from a single point, but as the
opening of a white hole – the theoretical opposite of a black hole. This is the central idea
behind a new cosmological model called the Horizon Model (HM), proposed by Santa Fe, New Mexico, physicist Roger
Eugene Hill and published in the May, 2025, issue of the journal
General Relativity and Gravitation .
This model offers a fresh perspective on some of the biggest mysteries in
cosmology, including the rapid expansion of the early universe (cosmic inflation) and the
puzzling nature of dark energy.
At the heart of HM is the idea that the universe's most fundamental ingredient is quantum
information, specifically tiny units called qubits. Information theory suggests that the very
first element of reality to emerge from the Big Bang singularity was a single, minuscule
qubit, about the size of the smallest possible unit of space, (the Planck length) . HM
proposes that this initial qubit was contained within a white hole. As the white hole
"opened up," its boundary, known as the event horizon, began to expand. HM proposes that
spacetime itself, along with all the matter and energy we see, emerged from this expanding
horizon.
Drawing on concepts from black hole physics and the Holographic Principle (the idea that
information about a volume can be encoded on its surface), the Horizon Model calculates
that an enormous number of these vacuum qubits (about 10
121 ) would be needed to
match the predicted energy density of the vacuum with the observed energy density of our
universe. This elegant step potentially solves the long-standing cosmological constant
problem, often called the biggest discrepancy between theory and experiment in all of
science (>10
120).
But how did the universe get so big so quickly in the early moments after the Big Bang? HM
offers an intriguing explanation for cosmic inflation. By comparing the calculated number
of vacuum qubits to the estimated amount of ordinary information (entropy) in the
observable universe, the model suggests that when the first bit of regular information
appeared, the timeless vacuum already contained a staggering 4×10
16 entangled qubits.
This sudden "inflation" of the quantum information within the white hole horizon naturally
explains the rapid expansion of the early universe. The model even predicts the initial size
of this "inflaton" to be around a billion Planck Lengths, consistent with constraints on the
“inflaton” size placed on it by measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background.
Furthermore, the Horizon Model tackles the ongoing debate about the Hubble constant,
which measures the rate at which the universe is expanding. HM's calculations for the
current expansion rate are very close to measurements of the early universe. The model
also hints that the discrepancy between early and late universe measurements (the Hubble
tension) could be resolved with minor adjustments to the vacuum energy density.
Intriguingly, HM also connects the energy of the vacuum to dark energy, the mysterious
force driving the accelerated expansion of the present-day universe. The model's
predictions for the pressure of this vacuum energy even align with actual pressure
measurements taken on the Moon by NASA and the Chinese space programs,
The Horizon Model resonates with a growing area of research that suggests spacetime isn't
fundamental but "emerges" from a deeper, quantum reality, often involving concepts like
quantum entanglement. HM proposes a specific mechanism for this emergence: a 3D
collection of entangled quantum bits giving rise to a 2D horizon that, in turn, births our
3D+1 dimensional spacetime and everything within it.
While the Horizon Model is currently a theoretical framework, it raises profound questions
that could guide future research towards a unified theory of quantum gravity. It asks: How
exactly does a collection of entangled qubits create a quantized horizon? Could these
qubits be related to fundamental particles like gravitons and photons? Is time itself an
emergent property arising from the interactions of these quantum bits?
In conclusion, the Horizon Model presents a compelling alternative to the standard Big
Bang theory, offering potential solutions to major cosmological puzzles by grounding the
universe's origin and evolution in the principles of quantum information and the intriguing
physics of white holes. It paints a picture of our cosmos as potentially emerging from a
fundamental layer of quantum entanglement at the boundary of a white hole.
I presented a 10 minute talk on April 25, 2023 at the Virtual April Meeting of the American Physical Society in a session entitled
"Cosmology and the CMB". The talk is entitled "The Non-local Vacuum, A Framework for New Physics" and presents the essence of the Horizon Model.