We investigate the holographic complexity growth rate of a conformal field theory in a Friedman-Lemaître-Roberstson-Walker (FLRW) universe. We consider two ways to realize an FLRW spacetime from an anti–de Sitter Schwarzschild geometry. The first one is obtained by introducing a new foliation of the Schwarzschild geometry such that the conformal boundary takes the FLRW form. The other one is to consider a brane universe moving in the Schwarzschild background. For each case, we compute the complexity growth rate in a closed universe and a flat universe by using both the complexity-volume and complexity-action dualities. We find that there are two kinds of contributions to the growth rate: one is from the interaction among the degrees of freedom, while the other one from the change of the spatial volume of the universe. The behaviors of the growth rate depend on the details to realize the FLRW universe as well as the holographic conjecture for the complexity. For the realization of the FLRW universe on the asymptotic boundary, the leading divergent term for the complexity growth rate obeys a volume law which is natural from the field theory viewpoint. For the brane universe scenario, the complexity-volume and complexity-action conjectures give different results for the closed universe case. A possible explanation of the inconsistency when the brane crosses the black hole horizon is given based on the Lloyd bound.

• Received 7 October 2019
• Accepted 21 January 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.101.046006

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Published by the American Physical Society