Klaus M. Frahm, Leonardo Ermann, and Dima L. Shepelyansky
Complexities 2026, 2(3), 20;
According to the recent Wealth Thermalization Hypothesis (WTH), the wealth inequality in the world is described by the Rayleigh–Jeans (RJ) thermal distribution of interacting agents in a society with social stratification. In this concept, the wealth layers of society are associated with energy levels from a nonlinear dynamical system conserving two integrals of motion—namely, total energy and the probability norm. This leads to RJ condensation and the formation of a huge poverty phase of low wealth and a tiny oligarchic phase that captures a main part of total society wealth. This RJ phenomenon has similarities with self-cleaning in multimode optical fibers and constraint-driven condensation in various physical systems. We analyze real Lorenz and Pareto curves for wealth of households in countries and the world; gross domestic product of countries; market capitalization of companies on the stock exchanges of Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London; bitcoin transactions; and world trade between countries and show that the WTH theory gives a good description of these curves. On the basis of this comparison, we argue that the RJ thermal distribution provides a universal description of wealth inequality in the world.
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