Equipartition of energy in the horizon degrees of freedom and the emergence of gravity

By Thanu Padmanabhan. 2009

282 citations recorded by the source corpus.

It is possible to provide a physical interpretation for the field equations of gravity based on a thermodynamical perspective. The virtual degrees of freedom associated with the horizons, as perceived by the local Rindler observer, play a crucial role in this approach. In this context, the relation S = E/2T between the entropy (S), active gravitational mass (E) and temperature (T) — obtained previously in gr-qc/0308070 [CQG, 21, 4485 (2004)] — can be reinterpreted as the law of equipartition E = (1/2) nkBT where $n=\Delta A/L_{\rm P}^2$ is the number (density) of microscopic horizon degrees of freedom in an area ΔA. Conversely, one can use the equipartition argument to provide a thermodynamic interpretation of gravity, even in the nonrelativistic limit. These results emphasize the intrinsic quantum nature of all gravitational phenomena and diminishes the distinction between thermal phenomena associated with local Rindler horizons and the usual thermodynamics of macroscopic bodies in non-inertial frames. J...

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/45522fb19a190906f099b2bd87513e1e46127422

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. R. Cai
2. Yi Wang
3. N. Ohta
4. Miao Li
5. Li-Ming Cao
6. T.Padmanabhan
7. Thanu Padmanabhan
8. Emmanuel N. Saridakis

In Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

1. R. Cai
2. T.Padmanabhan
3. Li-Ming Cao
4. N. Ohta
5. Thanu Padmanabhan
6. Miao Li
7. Yi Wang
8. Emmanuel N. Saridakis

Citations in the corpus

• Thermodynamical Aspects of Gravity: New insights (2009, background): “More details regarding this approach can be found in [69, 131].”
• Thermodynamical aspects of gravity: new insights (2010, background): “More details regarding this approach can be found in [69, 131].”
• Quantum UV/IR relations and holographic dark energy from entropic force (2010, background): “Especially, Padmanabhan discussed the equipartition rule and some other thermodynamics of gravity in [3].”
• Friedmann Equations from Entropic Force (2010, result): “RGC thanks his colleagues and students at ITP/CAS and T. Padmanabhan for various discussions on the entropic force.”