nature.com (Nature Communications) - 2026-10-04

URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05433-9 (open access, CC BY 4.0) Zhi-Wei Wang & Samuel L. Braunstein, "Surfaces away from horizons are not thermodynamic", Nat. Commun. 9, 2977 (2018).

Findings [web]: they generalise Bardeen-Carter-Hawking 1973 to ordinary surfaces in static asymptotically flat spacetimes. They agree that only constant-potential surfaces (Verlinde's holographic screens) can even be in thermal equilibrium with a physical screen at the Unruh temperature. Result: the first law holds on horizons and, to excellent approximation, on stretched horizons; for screens away from horizons the first law fails "except for spherically symmetric scenarios", "thus undermining the key thermodynamic assumption" of the emergent gravity programme. Directly cites Verlinde JHEP 2011 (the project paper) and its heuristic Einstein-equation derivation (claim 4). Also relevant to the paper's own caveat that equipotential screens may not be in equilibrium [read: p.28 per claims.md]. Reader comment on the page (A. Peach, 27 Aug 2018), recorded as a commenter's view: the analysis assumes a strict area law, whereas Verlinde's 2016 EG has a volume law, in which GR does not emerge in general. Keep with the finding: the critique targets the 2010 paper's area-law screens; the 2016 model differs.