Dominant spacetime in three dimensional de Sitter gravity

Abstract

In three dimensions, Kerr-de Sitter spacetime as a solution of Einstein gravity with positive cosmological constant has a single cosmological horizon. The flat-space limit (zero cosmological constant limit) of this spacetime is well-defined and yields the flat-space cosmological solution which is a significant spacetime in the context of flat-space holography. In this paper, we calculate the free energy of this spacetime and compare it with the free energy of the three-dimensional de Sitter spacetime. We investigate which one of these two spacetimes will dominate in the semi-classical approximation for estimating the partition function. It is shown that for the same temperature of cosmological horizon of two spacetimes this is the de Sitter spacetime which is always dominant. Hence, contrary to asymptotically flat and asymptotically AdS spacetimes, there is no phase transition in three dimensional de Sitter gravity.