For more than a century, physics has been built on two great theories. Einstein’s theory of general relativity explains gravity as a bend in space and time.
Quantum mechanics governs the world of particles and fields. Both work brilliantly in their own areas. But combining them creates contradictions, especially when it comes to black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and the origin of the universe.
My colleagues and I have been exploring new ways to bridge that gap. The idea is to treat information as the most fundamental element of reality, including matter, energy, and even space-time itself. We call this framework a quantum memory matrix (QMM).
At its core is the simple but powerful proposition that quantum mechanics suggests that spacetime is not smooth but discrete and made up of tiny “cells.” Each cell can store the quantum imprint of any interaction, including the effects of passing particles and passing forces such as electromagnetic and nuclear interactions. Each event leaves a small change in the local quantum state of the space-time cell.
In other words, the universe doesn’t just evolve. I remember that.
The story begins with the information paradox of a black hole. According to the theory of relativity, anything that falls into a black hole will disappear forever. According to quantum theory, that’s not possible. Information is never destroyed.
QMM provides a solution. When matter falls, surrounding space-time cells record its footprint. When the black hole eventually evaporates, no information is lost. It is already written into the memory of space and time.
This mechanism is captured mathematically by something called the imprint operator, which is a reversible rule that makes information storage work. At first, I applied this to gravity. But then we asked, what about the other forces of nature? It turns out that they fit into the same image.
In models that assume the existence of space-time cells, the strong and weak nuclear forces that hold atomic nuclei also leave traces in space-time. He later extended this framework to electromagnetism (although this paper is currently under peer review). Even a simple electric field can change the memory state of spatiotemporal cells.
Explanation of dark matter and dark energy
This led to a broader principle called duality of geometric information. In this view, the shape of spacetime is influenced not only by mass and energy, as Einstein taught us, but also by how quantum information is distributed, especially through entanglement. Entanglement is a quantum feature in which, for example, two particles are eerily connected. That is, changing the state of one automatically and instantly changes the state of the other, even if it is light years away.
This change in perspective has dramatic consequences. A study currently under peer review has found that clumps of imprints behave exactly like dark matter, an unknown substance that makes up most of the matter in the universe. They aggregate under gravity, explaining the motion of galaxies that appear to orbit at unexpectedly high speeds, without the need for new particles.
In another article, we showed how dark energy is generated. When a space-time cell becomes saturated, it is no longer able to record new independent information. Instead, they contribute to the residual energy in spacetime. Interestingly, this remaining contribution has the same mathematical form as the “cosmological constant” or dark energy that is causing the universe to expand at an accelerating rate.
Its size is consistent with the observed dark energy accelerating the universe. Taken together, these results suggest that dark matter and dark energy may be two sides of the same informational coin.
A cyclical universe?
But if space-time memory is finite, what happens when it fills up? Our latest cosmology paper, accepted for publication in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, points to a cyclic universe that is born and destroyed. Each cycle of expansion and contraction accumulates more entropy (a measure of disorder) in the ledger. When a limit is reached, the universe “bounces” into a new cycle.
When the limit is reached, it means that the information capacity (entropy) of space-time is at its maximum. If this happens, contractions will not be able to continue smoothly. The equations show that, rather than collapsing into a singularity, the accumulated entropy causes an inversion, leading to a new expansion phase. This is called a “bounce.”
By comparing this model with observational data, we estimate that the universe has already gone through three to four cycles of expansion and contraction, with fewer than 10 cycles remaining. After the remaining cycles are completed, the information capacity of spacetime is completely saturated. At that point, no further bounces will occur. Instead, the universe will enter a final stage of slow expansion.
So the true “information age” of the universe will be about 62 billion years, not just the current expansion period of 13.8 billion years.
So far, this may sound purely theoretical. But we have already tested parts of QMM on today’s quantum computers. We treated qubits, the basic units of quantum computers, as small space-time cells. Using an imprint and retrieval protocol based on QMM equations, we recovered the original quantum state with more than 90% accuracy.
This revealed two things. First, the imprint operator operates on a real quantum system. Second, there are practical benefits. By combining imprinting with conventional error correction codes, we have significantly reduced logic errors. In other words, QMMs could not only help explain the universe, but also help build better quantum computers.
QMM reimagines the universe as both a cosmic memory bank and a quantum computer. Every event, every force, every particle leaves a mark that shapes the evolution of the universe. It connects some of physics’ deepest puzzles, from information paradoxes to dark matter and dark energy, from cosmic cycles to the arrow of time.
And it’s done in a way that can already be simulated and tested in the lab. Whether QMM becomes the final word or a stepping stone, it opens up the surprising possibility that the universe may be more than just geometry and energy. It’s also a memory. And every moment in the history of the universe may still be recorded in that memory.
