# P-V criticality in the extended phase space of black holes in Einstein-Horndeski gravity

## TL;DR

This paper investigates phase transitions and P-V criticality in Einstein-Horndeski black holes within extended phase space, revealing van der Waals-like behavior and suggesting cosmological constant may not be essential for black hole thermodynamics.

## Contribution

It introduces a more physically motivated pressure in Einstein-Horndeski black holes and demonstrates P-V criticality even without a cosmological constant, expanding understanding of black hole thermodynamics.

## Key findings

- Black holes exhibit van der Waals-like phase transitions.
- Critical behavior observed for zero and positive cosmological constant.
- Proposed pressure relates to black hole asymptotics, not just cosmological constant.

## Abstract

Gravity is believed to have deep and inherent relation to thermodynamics. We study phase transition and critical behavior in the extended phase space of asymptotic anti de-Sitter (AdS) black holes in Einstein-Horndeski gravity. We demonstrate that the black hole in Einstein-Horndeski gravity undergo phase transition and P-V criticality mimicking the van der Waals gas-liquid system. The key approach in our study is to introduce a more reasonable pressure instead of previous pressure $P=-\Lambda/8\pi$ related to cosmological constant $\Lambda$, and this proper pressure is given insight from the asymptotical behaviour of this black hole. Moreover, we also first obtain P-V criticality in the two cases with $\Lambda=0$ and $\Lambda>0$ in our paper, which implicates that the cosmological constant $\Lambda$ may be not a necessary pressure candidate for black holes at the microscopic level. We present critical exponents for these phase transition processes.