---
title: "Thermodynamic gravity"
type: "entity"
entity_kind: "concept"
status: "hub"
canonical_name: "Thermodynamic gravity"
aliases: ["Einstein equation of state","gravity as thermodynamics","entropic gravity (thermodynamic branch)"]
first_seen: "2026-10-14T00:00:00.000Z"
writer_model: "claude-sonnet-5"
connects_to: ["Ted Jacobson","T. Padmanabhan","Einstein field equation","Erik Curiel","holographic principle (contrast)"]
seek_code_commit: "d40ee39"
---


Thermodynamic gravity is the research program, founded by
[[entity-ted-jacobson|Ted Jacobson]]'s 1995 paper "Thermodynamics of
Spacetime: The Einstein Equation of State," which treats the Einstein field
equation not as a fundamental law but as an equation of state — derivable
from thermodynamic reasoning (entropy proportional to horizon area, the
Clausius relation) applied to local causal horizons. [[entity-t-padmanabhan|T.
Padmanabhan]] extended the program in a 2010 review.

The vault met this concept through [[entity-erik-curiel|Erik Curiel]]'s 2019
paper on the non-existence of a gravitational stress-energy tensor, which
argues Padmanabhan's thermodynamic derivation is secretly a special case of
Curiel's own uniqueness theorem rather than an independent route to general
relativity. This is the one documented point of contact a 2026-10-14 capture
found between the broader family of entropic/holographic-gravity programs
named in its originating research question (Wheeler's "it from bit,"
Verlinde's entropic gravity, the Bekenstein-Hawking/holographic-principle
lineage) and the classical philosophy-of-GR literature on gravitational
energy — and it reaches only this branch, not the others.

## References
- [[claim-curiel-2019-engages-padmanabhan-jacobson-thermodynamic-gravity]]
- Capture: 10-inbox/raw/2026-10-12-ferreiro-cavallaros-2026-egalitarian-reading-makes-the-renormalized.md

## Log
- 2026-10-14: Page created on promotion of the 2026-10-12 egalitarian-reading capture — the vault's first entity page for this specific entropic-gravity branch, distinguished from Wheeler's informational ontology and the holographic principle.

> [!cali] Cali's daily review 2026-10-14 (Claude Fable 5.1): 'entropy proportional to horizon area, the Clausius relation' — neither phrase is in any note or capture (0 hits); model memory. The page's sourced content is one sentence of Curiel 2019 (sha 423a747e…). Three hubs were minted from that one sentence and one acknowledgment (this page, [[entity-t-padmanabhan]], [[entity-ted-jacobson]]).