Holographic Complexity in FRW Spacetimes

Abstract

We examine the holographic complexity conjectures in the context of holographic theories of FRW spacetimes. Analyzing first the complexity-action conjecture for a flat FRW universe with one component, we find that the complexity grows as $t^2$, regardless of the value of $w$. In addition, we examine the holographic complexity for a flat universe sourced by a scalar field that is undergoing a transition. We find that the complexity decreases when the holographic entanglement entropy decreases for this universe. Moreover, the calculations show that, while the entanglement entropy decreases only slightly, the magnitudes of the corresponding fractional decreases in complexity are much larger. This presumably reflects the fact that entanglement is computationally expensive. Interestingly, we find that the gravitational action behaves like a complexity, while the total action is negative, and is thus ill-suited as a measure of complexity, in contrast to the conjectures in AdS settings. Finally, the implications of the complexity-volume conjecture are examined. The results are qualitatively similar to the complexity-action conjecture.