Thermodynamic Non-Equilibrium as a Source of Environmental Gravitational Screening

This work presents a phenomenological framework in which deviations from standard gravitational dynamics arise from the thermodynamic non-equilibrium of matter distributions. The model introduces an informational charge density defined through the departure from maximum entropy and proposes that gravitational coupling depends not only on mass density but also on the fraction of structured information that remains unthermalized. A density-dependent coupling function naturally produces an environmental screening mechanism: modifications of gravity are suppressed in high-density, strongly thermalized systems while becoming significant in low-density cosmological environments. The framework predicts the emergence of a transition redshift at which informational gravitational effects begin to influence structure formation. This behavior provides a qualitative mechanism for reducing late-time clustering amplitude without affecting early-Universe observables, offering a potential explanation for current cosmological tensions such as the S₈ discrepancy. The present work is intended as a phenomenological model establishing a physically motivated connection between non-equilibrium thermodynamics and environmentally screened modified gravity.