Cosmological constant as confining U(1) charge in two-dimensional dilaton gravity

TL;DR

This paper models the cosmological constant as a confining U(1) charge in two-dimensional dilaton gravity, deriving thermodynamic properties and revealing a universal Schottky anomaly, with applications to various black hole solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of the cosmological constant as a confining U(1) charge and develops a model-independent thermodynamic framework including a new boundary term.

Findings

Cosmological constant behaves as a confining U(1) charge.

A Born-Infeld boundary term is required for the action.

Universal Schottky anomaly appears in specific heat.

Abstract

The cosmological constant is treated as a thermodynamical parameter in the framework of two-dimensional dilaton gravity. We find that the cosmological constant behaves as a U(1) charge with a confining potential, and that such potentials require a novel Born-Infeld boundary term in the action. The free energy and other thermodynamical quantities of interest are derived, from first principles, in a way that is essentially model-independent. We discover that there is always a Schottky anomaly in the specific heat and explain its physical origin. Finally, we apply these results to specific examples, like Anti-de Sitter-Schwarzschild-Tangherlini black holes, Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli black holes and the Jackiw-Teitelboim model.