Universality of entropy principle for a general diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theory

TL;DR

This paper proves that in any diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theory, the extremum of the total entropy of a perfect fluid corresponds to a solution of the gravitational equations, establishing a universal link between thermodynamics and gravity.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous, universal proof that the entropy principle aligns with gravitational dynamics across various gravitational theories.

Findings

Entropy extrema imply gravitational equations are satisfied.

The proof applies to Einstein, f(R), Lovelock, and other gravity theories.

Thermodynamics and gravitational dynamics are consistent in static configurations.

Abstract

Thermodynamics plays an important role in gravitational theories. It is a principle independent of the gravitational dynamics, and there is still no rigorous proof to show that it is consistent with the dynamical principle. We consider a self-gravitating perfect fluid system in a general diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theory. Based on the Noether charge method proposed by Iyer and Wald, considering static off/on-shell variational configurations which satisfy the gravitational constraint equation, we rigorously prove that the extrema of the total entropy of perfect fluid inside a compact region for fixed total particle number demands that the static configuration is an on-shell solution after we introduce some appropriate boundary conditions, i.e., it also satisfies the spatial gravitational equations. This means that the entropy principle of the fluid stores the same information as the gravitational equation in a static configuration. Our proof is universal and holds for any diffeomorphism-covariant purely gravitational theories, such as Einstein gravity, f(R) gravity, Lovelock gravity, f(Gauss-Bonnet) gravity and Einstein-Weyl gravity. Our result shows the consistency between the ordinary thermodynamics and the gravitational dynamics.