Semi-classical spacetime thermodynamics
Abstract
We derive the semi-classical gravitational dynamics from thermodynamics of local stretched light cones in 2-dimensional dilaton gravity, explicitly treating the backreaction of quantum matter through the conformal anomaly's effect on the generalized entropy. We also sketch the extension of this analysis to the conformal anomaly in 4-dimensional semi-classical gravity. In direct connection to this problem, we also tackle the appropriate definition of Wald entropy in thermodynamic derivation of equations of motion for classical scalar-tensor theories. For the class of Brans-Dicke theories, including 2-dimensional dilaton gravity, we show that the equations of motion follow from the dynamical Wald entropy associated with local causal horizons.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2509.05052,
title = {Semi-classical spacetime thermodynamics},
author = {Ana Alonso-Serrano and Marek Liška and Michał Piotrak},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.05052},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
36 pages, the current version improves the derivation by considering work terms and incorporating dynamical Wald entropy more rigorously