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On the origin of gravity and the laws of Newton
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  • Open Access
  • Published: 07 April 2011

On the origin of gravity and the laws of Newton

  • Erik Verlinde1 

Journal of High Energy Physics volume 2011, Article number: 29 (2011) Cite this article

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Abstract

Starting from first principles and general assumptions we present a heuristic argument that shows that Newton’s law of gravitation naturally arises in a theory in which space emerges through a holographic scenario. Gravity is identified with an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. A relativistic generalization of the presented arguments directly leads to the Einstein equations. When space is emergent even Newton’s law of inertia needs to be explained. The equivalence principle auggests that it is actually the law of inertia whose origin is entropic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Amsterdam, Valckenierstraat 65, 1018 XE, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Erik Verlinde

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  1. Erik Verlinde
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Correspondence to Erik Verlinde.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1001.0785

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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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Cite this article

Verlinde, E. On the origin of gravity and the laws of Newton. J. High Energ. Phys. 2011, 29 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2011)029

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  • Received: 22 October 2010

  • Accepted: 19 March 2011

  • Published: 07 April 2011

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2011)029

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Keywords

  • Gauge-gravity correspondence
  • Models of Quantum Gravity
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