Inertia and Gravity: Spacetime Thermodynamics

• Main Authors: Shih-Ho Huang, 黃世和
• Other Authors: Woei-Yann Pauchy Hwang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16028216048104335458

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 物理研究所 === 98 === Recently, Erik Verlinde proposed some conjectures about the origins of inertia and gravity. In this thesis, we will try to reconstruct these proposals. First, we introduce the entropy-area law for a stationary black hole horizon and the equipartition rule for a static black hole horizon. By generalizing the entropy-area law to any stationary horizon, people may get the equation for gravity. We may also do so by generalize the equipartition rule for any static, space-like screen. Our work is mainly related to the Verlinde’s conjecture for inertia. First, we study in details the gravity effect by a particle in an accelerating frame. When we shift the particle near a screen, we find that the area of the screen will be changed. Using the entropy-area law or equipartition rule for the static spacetime, we get a linear relation between the entropy on the holographic screen and the particle’s displacement times it’s mass. This relation related to the concept of inertia is a conjecture in Verlinde’s original proposal. However, we derive this relation here. Compared to the Newton’s second law of motion, Verlinde got the coefficient we wanted. However, we can get the coefficient directly. By studying the thermo equilibrium between the screen and environment, we get the Newton’s second law of motion. Then we may also explain the equivalence between inertia mass and gravitational mass for a gravitational source theoretically (Although Einstein used the equivalence between gravitational acceleration and gravitational field as a starting point to establish the equivalence between the inertia mass and gravitational mass, the role of “gravitational source” related to inertia still remains as a mystery). At the end of the thesis, we will discuss unsolved problems and unexplored areas in this frontier of entropic gravity.