Thermodynamics and phase transitions of black holes in contact with a gravitating heat bath

Abstract

We study the thermodynamics of a shell of self-gravitating radiation, bounded by two spherical surfaces. This system provides a consistent model for a gravitating thermal reservoir for different solutions to vacuum Einstein equations in the shell’s interior. The latter include black holes and flat space, hence, this model allows for the study of black hole phase transitions. Following the analysis of Anastopoulos C and Savvidou N (2012 Class. Quantum Grav. 29 025004), we show that the inclusion of appropriate entropy terms to the spacetime boundaries (including the Bekenstein–Hawking entropy for black hole horizons) leads to a consistent thermodynamic description. The system is characterized by four phases, two black hole phases distinguished by the size of the horizon, a flat space phase and one phase that describes naked singularities. We undertake a detailed analysis of black-hole phase transitions, the non-concave entropy function, the properties of temperature at infinity, and system’s heat capacity.