Entropic route to Brown-York tensor: A unified framework for null and timelike hypersurfaces

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Main Authors: Bhattacharya, Krishnakanta, Ram, Bhera, Majhi, Bibhas Ranjan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Bhattacharya, Krishnakanta
Ram, Bhera
Majhi, Bibhas Ranjan
author_facet Bhattacharya, Krishnakanta
Ram, Bhera
Majhi, Bibhas Ranjan
contents Building on Padmanabhan's entropy functional, originally introduced to derive Einstein's equations and highlight the emergent nature of gravity, we demonstrate its robustness in a broader context. Using the same entropy density, we show that the Brown-York (BY) tensor arises naturally as the projection of the canonical momentum conjugate to the normal vectors on the relevant hypersurface, thereby providing a common construction applicable to both timelike and null hypersurfaces. This perspective also offers insight into the structural differences of the null BY tensor, including its non-symmetric character. We further extend the analysis to scalar-tensor theories, showing that the entropy-based formulation reproduces the expected equations of motion along with the corresponding BY tensor, and, clarifies its non-conservation in the presence of additional scalar field which is non-minimally coupled. Our results provide a coherent variational interpretation of quasi-local gravitational quantities and reveal a common underlying structure linking bulk dynamics and boundary momentum.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_22434
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Entropic route to Brown-York tensor: A unified framework for null and timelike hypersurfaces
Bhattacharya, Krishnakanta
Ram, Bhera
Majhi, Bibhas Ranjan
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Building on Padmanabhan's entropy functional, originally introduced to derive Einstein's equations and highlight the emergent nature of gravity, we demonstrate its robustness in a broader context. Using the same entropy density, we show that the Brown-York (BY) tensor arises naturally as the projection of the canonical momentum conjugate to the normal vectors on the relevant hypersurface, thereby providing a common construction applicable to both timelike and null hypersurfaces. This perspective also offers insight into the structural differences of the null BY tensor, including its non-symmetric character. We further extend the analysis to scalar-tensor theories, showing that the entropy-based formulation reproduces the expected equations of motion along with the corresponding BY tensor, and, clarifies its non-conservation in the presence of additional scalar field which is non-minimally coupled. Our results provide a coherent variational interpretation of quasi-local gravitational quantities and reveal a common underlying structure linking bulk dynamics and boundary momentum.
title Entropic route to Brown-York tensor: A unified framework for null and timelike hypersurfaces
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22434