Linear-Quadratic GUP and Thermodynamic Dimensional Reduction

TL;DR

This paper explores how the Linear-Quadratic Generalized Uncertainty Principle (GUP) affects thermodynamics, revealing a reduction in degrees of freedom at high temperatures and near Planck scale, with implications for quantum gravity models.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of thermodynamic properties under LQGUP, demonstrating effective dimensional reduction in harmonic oscillator systems at high energies.

Findings

Degrees of freedom reduce from 6 to 3 in 3D oscillators at high temperatures.

Thermal wavelengths near Planck length cause microstate suppression.

Dimensional reduction observed in 2D oscillators from 4 to 2.

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the statistical mechanics within the Linear-Quadratic GUP (LQGUP, i.e, GUP with linear and quadratic terms in momentum) models in the semiclassical regime. Then, some thermodynamic properties of a system of 3-dimensional harmonic oscillators are investigated by calculating the deformed partition functions. According to the equipartition theorem, we show that the number of accessible microstates decreases sharply in the very high temperatures regime. When the thermal de Broglie wavelength is of the order of the Planck length, three degrees of freedom are frozen in this setup. In other words, it is observed that there is an effective reduction of the degrees of freedom from 6 to 3 for a system of 3D harmonic oscillators in this framework. The calculations are carried out using both approximate analytical and exact numerical methods. The results of the analytical method are also presented in the form of thermal wavelengths for better understanding. Finally, the case of a 2-dimensional harmonic is treated as another example to comprehend the results, leading to a reduction of the degrees of freedom from 4 to 2.