Thermalon mediated phase transitions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates how thermalons can induce phase transitions between different spacetime vacua in Gauss-Bonnet gravity, revealing new transitions including from AdS to flat black holes, and compares these with Hawking-Page transitions.

Contribution

It introduces the study of thermalon-mediated phase transitions in extended thermodynamic phase space within Gauss-Bonnet gravity, including novel AdS to flat black hole transitions.

Findings

Thermalons can mediate transitions from AdS to dS and flat black holes.

Thermalon transitions share similarities with Hawking-Page transitions.

Extended thermodynamics framework reveals new phase transition possibilities.

Abstract

Thermalons can mediate phase transitions between different vacua in higher curvature gravity, potentially changing the asymptotic structure of the spacetime. Treating the cosmological constant as a dynamical parameter, we study these phase transitions in the context of extended thermodynamic phase space. We find that in addition to the AdS to dS phase transitions previously studied, thermal AdS space can undergo a phase transition to an asymptotically flat black hole geometry. In the context of AdS to AdS transitions, we comment on the similarities and differences between thermalon transitions and the Hawking-Page transition.