How the Schwarzschild–de Sitter horizons remain in thermal equilibrium at vastly different temperatures

The Tolman–Ehrenfest criterion of thermal equilibrium for a static fluid in a static spacetime is generalized to stationary heat conduction, in the approximation in which backreaction is negligible. Applying this generalized criterion to the Hawking radiation in the Schwarzschild–de Sitter geometry shows that the two horizons (which act as thermostats) remain in thermal equilibrium. The temperature of the radiation fluid interpolates between the temperatures at the horizons, with a static analytic profile that is given explicitly.