Microscopic origin of the entropy of de Sitter spacetime
Abstract
A bstract We construct an infinite family of semiclassical de Sitter (dS) microstates, realized as backreacted geometries of dS spacetime with a constant tension thin-shell brane located behind the dS event horizon. We show that wormhole contributions to the semiclassical dS Euclidean gravitational path integral lead to universal nonperturbative overlaps among the semiclassical dS microstates. By evaluating the nonperturbative overlaps, we count the dimension of the Hilbert space spanned by the semiclassical dS microstates and find that it precisely equals the exponential of the Gibbons-Hawking entropy of the dS spacetime. Our construction thus provides a gravitational state-counting derivation for the Gibbons-Hawking entropy of dS spacetime.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Volume
- 2026
- Issue
- 9
- Publication date
- 18 September 2026
- Language
- EN