Areas add, entropies do not: an additivity obstruction to region-wise Barrow-entropic cosmology

I show that the surface degree-of-freedom count used in emergent-gravity and holographic-equipartition cosmology cannot be assigned separately to sub-regions unless Barrow's deformation parameter vanishes, and I quantify the resulting error. Barrow entropy S ∝ A^(1+Δ/2) is non-additive for Δ ≠ 0, but inherits a composition rule from the Tsallis–Cirto family, the δ-addition rule with δ = 1+Δ/2. Since S^(1/δ) = A/A_p holds identically, that rule is equivalent to the additivity of area. The additive quantity is therefore the horizon area, never the entropy. Consequently N_sur = 4S is not additive over disjoint surfaces unless Δ = 0. This obstructs a step taken throughout the entropic structure-formation literature, in which a modified Friedmann equation whose coefficients depend on the horizon entropy is applied to a collapsing sub-region evaluated at that region's own expansion rate. Splitting a horizon into N equal parts and summing N_sur over the parts misestimates the total by N^(−Δ/2). For |Δ| ~ 5×10⁻³ and N ~ 10⁹ bound structures inside a Hubble volume this is a 5% effect, and it grows only logarithmically with N. The argument is purely geometric — it uses only that disjoint surfaces have additive areas — and therefore does not depend on whether Barrow entropy admits a microstate interpretation, a point on which the literature is divided. Existing multi-horizon constructions that compose √S are shown to be already consistent with the obstruction, since for δ = 2 the square root is the area. This record contains the English and German versions of the same manuscript.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-08-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22134129
Primary Topic
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
Type
preprint
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preprint

Areas add, entropies do not: an additivity obstruction to region-wise Barrow-entropic cosmology

Muhammet Ali Güz
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
preprint

Areas add, entropies do not: an additivity obstruction to region-wise Barrow-entropic cosmology

Muhammet Ali Güz
preprint en

Abstract

I show that the surface degree-of-freedom count used in emergent-gravity and holographic-equipartition cosmology cannot be assigned separately to sub-regions unless Barrow's deformation parameter vanishes, and I quantify the resulting error. Barrow entropy S ∝ A^(1+Δ/2) is non-additive for Δ ≠ 0, but inherits a composition rule from the Tsallis–Cirto family, the δ-addition rule with δ = 1+Δ/2. Since S^(1/δ) = A/A_p holds identically, that rule is equivalent to the additivity of area. The additive quantity is therefore the horizon area, never the entropy. Consequently N_sur = 4S is not additive over disjoint surfaces unless Δ = 0. This obstructs a step taken throughout the entropic structure-formation literature, in which a modified Friedmann equation whose coefficients depend on the horizon entropy is applied to a collapsing sub-region evaluated at that region's own expansion rate. Splitting a horizon into N equal parts and summing N_sur over the parts misestimates the total by N^(−Δ/2). For |Δ| ~ 5×10⁻³ and N ~ 10⁹ bound structures inside a Hubble volume this is a 5% effect, and it grows only logarithmically with N. The argument is purely geometric — it uses only that disjoint surfaces have additive areas — and therefore does not depend on whether Barrow entropy admits a microstate interpretation, a point on which the literature is divided. Existing multi-horizon constructions that compose √S are shown to be already consistent with the obstruction, since for δ = 2 the square root is the area. This record contains the English and German versions of the same manuscript.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Oldham Council (GB)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
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