Entropy Bound for the TM Electromagnetic Field in the Half Einstein Universe

TL;DR

This paper calculates the entropy/energy ratio for TM electromagnetic modes in the half Einstein universe, demonstrating that it remains bounded for small , and explores the effects of frequency dispersion on electromagnetic modes.

Contribution

It provides an explicit calculation of the entropy/energy ratio for TM modes in the half Einstein universe and discusses the impact of dispersion relations on electromagnetic modes.

Findings

Entropy/energy ratio is bounded for small .

Behavior of TM modes parallels TE modes in the thermodynamic limit.

Frequency dispersion can truncate electromagnetic oscillations in the Einstein cavity.

Abstract

An explicit calculation is given of the entropy/energy ratio for the TM modes of the electromagnetic field in the half Einstein universe. This geometry provides a mathematically convenient and physically instructive example of how the electromagnetic and thermodynamic quantities behave as a function of the nondimensional parameter \delta=1/2\pi aT, a being the scale factor and T the temperature. On physical grounds (related to the relaxation time), it is the case of small \delta's that is pertinent to thermodynamics. We find that as long as \delta is small, the entropy/energy ratio behaves in the same way as for the TE modes. The entropy is thus bounded. The present kind of formalism makes it convenient to study also the influence from frequency dispersion. We discuss an example where a sharp cutoff dispersion relation can in principle truncate the electromagnetic oscillations in the Einstein cavity such that only the lowest mode survives.