Gravity & Thermodynamics
Dutch theoretical physicist Erik Verlinde suggests that gravity arises once spacetime has emerged.
Gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by a change in the amount of information associated with the positions of bodies of matter. ~ Erik Verlinde
Working out gravity using the holographic principle, Verlinde mathematically demonstrated that Newtonian thermodynamic and gravitational laws, and Einstein’s general relativity, naturally arise at appropriate scales of observation.
Indian theoretical physicist Thanu Padmanabhan agrees. Padmanabhan showed how Einstein’s equations describing gravity can be rewritten in a form that makes them identical to the laws of thermodynamics. Gravity turns out to be an emergent metric of spacetime. Considering that gravity dimensionally defines the characteristics of spacetime, Padmanabhan’s common-sense conclusions proverbially sewed silk from the sow’s ear of holography.
The underlying description of gravity may lie in a microstructure made up of “atoms of spacetime.” ~ Thanu Padmanabhan
