Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics of Spacetime: the Role of Gravitational Dissipation

TL;DR

This paper explores the non-equilibrium thermodynamics of spacetime, linking gravitational dissipation to non-local heat fluxes and internal degrees of freedom, extending the thermodynamic interpretation beyond Einstein's gravity to $f(R)$ theories.

Contribution

It demonstrates that gravitational dissipation in spacetime thermodynamics is related to non-local heat fluxes and internal degrees of freedom, generalizing the thermodynamic approach to $f(R)$ gravity.

Findings

Internal entropy production equals tidal heating in GR.

Dissipative effects in $f(R)$ gravity include scalar contributions.

Thermodynamics constrains gravitational degrees of freedom via spacetime kinematics.

Abstract

In arXiv:gr-qc/9504004 it was shown that the Einstein equation can be derived as a local constitutive equation for an equilibrium spacetime thermodynamics. More recently, in the attempt to extend the same approach to the case of $f(R)$ theories of gravity, it was found that a non-equilibrium setting is indeed required in order to fully describe both this theory as well as classical GR (arXiv:gr-qc/0602001). Here, elaborating on this point, we show that the dissipative character leading to a non-equilibrium spacetime thermodynamics is actually related -- both in GR as well as in $f(R)$ gravity -- to non-local heat fluxes associated with the purely gravitational/internal degrees of freedom of the theory. In particular, in the case of GR we show that the internal entropy production term is identical to the so called tidal heating term of Hartle-Hawking. Similarly, for the case of $f(R)$ gravity, we show that dissipative effects can be associated with the generalization of this term plus a scalar contribution whose presence is clearly justified within the scalar-tensor representation of the theory. Finally, we show that the allowed gravitational degrees of freedom can be fixed by the kinematics of the local spacetime causal structure, through the specific Equivalence Principle formulation. In this sense, the thermodynamical description seems to go beyond Einstein's theory as an intrinsic property of gravitation.