Islands and the de Sitter entropy bound

Understand

The de Sitter (dS) entropy bound gives the maximal number of e-folds that non-eternal inflation can last before violating the thermodynamical interpretation of dS space.

• This semiclassical argument is the analogue, for dS space, of the Black-Hole information paradox.
• We use techniques developed to address the latter, namely the island formula, to calculate semiclassically the fine-grained entropy as seen by a Minkowskian observer after inflation and find that this follows a Page-like curve, never exceeding the thermodynamic dS entropy.
• This calculation, performed for a CFT in 2D gravity, suggests that the semiclassical expectation should be modified in such a way that the entropy bound might actually not be present.