RT Journal Article
T1 Gravity from equilibrium thermodynamics of stretched light cones
A1 Alonso-Serrano, Ana
A1 Garay Elizondo, Luis Javier
A1 Liška, Marek
A1 López Pineros, Celia
AB This work digs into the connection between gravity and thermodynamics of stretched light cones (SLC). They are associated with uniformly accelerating observers, who endow the SLC with a physical notion of temperature via the Unruh effect. We compute the expansion, shear, and vorticity of the SLC to fully study its dynamics and account for the possibility of previously predicted nonequilibrium entropy production. For consistency, we prove the equivalence of the two different geometrical methods available for studying the SLCs’ properties. Then, we apply the energy balance and use Clausius’ relation to relate the geometrical properties of the SLC with energy fluxes crossing its surface, showing that it encodes the equations governing the gravitational dynamics. We show here how this analysis can be fully carried in terms of equilibrium thermodynamics due to the vanishing of shear, and how one can identify a work term related to the acceleration of the observer.
PB American Physical Society
SN 2470-0010
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/130644
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/130644
LA eng
NO Alonso-Serrano, A., Garay, L. J., Liška, M., & López Pineros, C. (2025). Gravity from equilibrium thermodynamics of stretched light cones. Physical Review D, 112(12), 124026.
NO German Research Foundation
NO Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 21 ene 2026