D-Sitter space: causal structure, thermodynamics, and entropy

We study the entropy of concrete de Sitter flux compactifications and deformations of them containing D-brane domain walls. We determine the relevant causal and thermodynamic properties of these 'D-Sitter' deformations of de Sitter spacetimes. We find a string scale correspondence point at which the entropy localized on the D-branes (and measured by probes sent from an observer in the middle of the bubble) scales the same with large flux quantum numbers as the entropy of the original de Sitter space, and at which Bousso's bound is saturated by the D-brane degrees of freedom (up to order one coefficients) for an infinite range of times. From the geometry of a static patch of D-Sitter space and from basic relations in flux compactifications, we find support for the possibility of a low energy open string description of the static patch of de Sitter space. (author)