Unified First Law and Thermodynamics of Apparent Horizon in FRW Universe

In this paper we revisit the relation between the Friedmann equations and the first law of thermodynamics. We find that the unified first law firstly proposed by Hayward to treat the "outer"trapping horizon of dynamical black hole can be used to the apparent horizon (a kind of "inner" trapping horizon in the context of the FRW cosmology) of the FRW universe. We discuss three kinds of gravity theorties: Einstein theory, Lovelock thoery and scalar-tensor theory. In Einstein theory, the first law of thermodynamics is always satisfied on the apparent horizon. In Lovelock theory, treating the higher derivative terms as an effective energy-momentum tensor, we find that this method can give the same entropy formula for the apparent horizon as that of black hole horizon. This implies that the Clausius relation holds for the Lovelock theory. In scalar-tensor gravity, we find, by using the same procedure, the Clausius relation no longer holds. This indicates that the apparent horizon of FRW universe in the scalar-tensor gravity corresponds to a system of non-equilibrium thermodynamics. We show this point by using the method developed recently by Eling {\it et al.} for dealing with the $f(R)$ gravity.Comment: v2: revtex, 23 pages, references added, minor changes, to appear in PR

Thermodynamic Geometry and Critical Behavior of Black Holes

Based on the observations that there exists an analogy between the Reissner-Nordstr\"om-anti-de Sitter (RN-AdS) black holes and the van der Waals-Maxwell liquid-gas system, in which a correspondence of variables is $(\phi, q) \leftrightarrow (V,P)$, we study the Ruppeiner geometry, defined as Hessian matrix of black hole entropy with respect to the internal energy (not the mass) of black hole and electric potential (angular velocity), for the RN, Kerr and RN-AdS black holes. It is found that the geometry is curved and the scalar curvature goes to negative infinity at the Davies' phase transition point for the RN and Kerr black holes. Our result for the RN-AdS black holes is also in good agreement with the one about phase transition and its critical behavior in the literature.Comment: Revtex, 18 pages including 4 figure

Notes on Entropy Force in General Spherically Symmetric Spacetimes

In a recent paper [arXiv:1001.0785], Verlinde has shown that the Newton gravity appears as an entropy force. In this paper we show how gravity appears as entropy force in Einstein's equation of gravitational field in a general spherically symmetric spacetime. We mainly focus on the trapping horizon of the spacetime. We find that when matter fields are absent, the change of entropy associated with the trapping horizon indeed can be identified with an entropy force. When matter fields are present, we see that heat flux of matter fields also leads to the change of entropy. Applying arguments made by Verlinde and Smolin, respectively, to the trapping horizon, we find that the entropy force is given by the surface gravity of the horizon. The cases in the untrapped region of the spacetime are also discussed.Comment: revtex4, 21 pages, no figures, one reference added, published version, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Holographic Superconductors with Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz Black Holes

We discuss the phase transition of planar black holes in Ho\v{r}ava-Lifshitz gravity by introducing a Maxwell field and a complex scalar field. We calculate the condensates of the charged operators in the dual CFTs when the mass square of the complex scalar filed is $m^2=-2/L^2$ and $m^2=0$, respectively. We compute the electrical conductivity of the \hl superconductor in the probe approximation. In particular, it is found that there exists a spike in the conductivity for the case of the operator with scaling dimension one. These results are quite similar to those in the case of Schwarzschild-AdS black holes, which demonstrates that the holographic superconductivity is a robust phenomenon associated with asymptotic AdS black holes.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures,refs adde

Black Holes in Gravity with Conformal Anomaly and Logarithmic Term in Black Hole Entropy

We present a class of exact analytic and static, spherically symmetric black hole solutions in the semi-classical Einstein equations with Weyl anomaly. The solutions have two branches, one is asymptotically flat and the other asymptotically de Sitter. We study thermodynamic properties of the black hole solutions and find that there exists a logarithmic correction to the well-known Bekenstein-Hawking area entropy. The logarithmic term might come from non-local terms in the effective action of gravity theories. The appearance of the logarithmic term in the gravity side is quite important in the sense that with this term one is able to compare black hole entropy up to the subleading order, in the gravity side and in the microscopic statistical interpretation side.Comment: Revtex, 10 pages. v2: minor changes and to appear in JHE

Thermodynamic Curvature of the BTZ Black Hole

Some thermodynamic properties of the Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole are studied to get the effective dimension of its corresponding statistical model. For this purpose, we make use of the geometrical approach to the thermodynamics: Considering the black hole as a thermodynamic system with two thermodynamic variables (the mass $M$ and the angular momemtum $J$), we obtain two-dimensional Riemannian thermodynamic geometry described by positive definite Ruppeiner metric. From the thermodynamic curvature we find that the extremal limit is the critical point. The effective spatial dimension of the statistical system corresponding to the near-extremal BTZ black holes is one. Far from the extremal point, the effective dimension becomes less than one, which leads to one possible speculation on the underlying structure for the corresponding statistical model.Comment: 19 pages, LaTeX with revtex macro, 4 figures in eps file

Incompressible Navier-Stokes Equations from Einstein Gravity with Chern-Simons Term

In (2+1)-dimensional hydrodynamic systems with broken parity, the shear and bulk viscosity is joined by the Hall viscosity and curl viscosity. The dual holographic model has been constructed by coupling a pseudo scalar to the gravitational Chern-Simons term in (3+1)-dimensional bulk gravity. In this paper, we investigate the non-relativistic fluid with Hall viscosity and curl viscosity living on a finite radial cutoff surface in the bulk. Employing the non-relativistic hydrodynamic expansion method, we obtain the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with Hall viscosity and curl viscosity. Unlike the shear viscosity, the ratio of the Hall viscosity over entropy density is found to be cutoff scale dependent, and it tends to zero when the cutoff surface approaches to the horizon of the background spacetime.Comment: 22 pages, published versio

Generalized Misner-Sharp Energy in f(R) Gravity

We study generalized Misner-Sharp energy in $f(R)$ gravity in a spherically symmetric spacetime. We find that unlike the cases of Einstein gravity and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, the existence of the generalized Misner-Sharp energy depends on a constraint condition in the $f(R)$ gravity. When the constraint condition is satisfied, one can define a generalized Misner-Sharp energy, but it cannot always be written in an explicit quasi-local form. However, such a form can be obtained in a FRW universe and for static spherically symmetric solutions with constant scalar curvature. In the FRW universe, the generalized Misner-Sharp energy is nothing but the total matter energy inside a sphere with radius $r$, which acts as the boundary of a finite region under consideration. The case of scalar-tensor gravity is also briefly discussed.Comment: Revtex, 17 pages, v2: some references added, to appear in PR

Notes on Ghost Dark Energy

We study a phenomenological dark energy model which is rooted in the Veneziano ghost of QCD. In this dark energy model, the energy density of dark energy is proportional to Hubble parameter and the proportional coefficient is of the order $\Lambda^3_{QCD}$, where $\Lambda_{QCD}$ is the mass scale of QCD. The universe has a de Sitter phase at late time and begins to accelerate at redshift around $z_{acc}\sim0.6$. We also fit this model and give the constraints on model parameters, with current observational data including SnIa, BAO, CMB, BBN and Hubble parameter data. We find that the squared sound speed of the dark energy is negative, which may cause an instability. We also study the cosmological evolution of the dark energy with interaction with cold dark matter.Comment: 20 pages,10 figures,Correct some typos and add new reference

Cardy-Verlinde Formula and AdS Black Holes

In a recent paper hep-th/0008140 by E. Verlinde, an interesting formula has been put forward, which relates the entropy of a conformal formal field in arbitrary dimensions to its total energy and Casimir energy. This formula has been shown to hold for the conformal field theories that have AdS duals in the cases of AdS Schwarzschild black holes and AdS Kerr black holes. In this paper we further check this formula with various black holes with AdS asymptotics. For the hyperbolic AdS black holes, the Cardy-Verlinde formula is found to hold if we choose the ``massless'' black hole as the ground state, but in this case, the Casimir energy is negative. For the AdS Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes in arbitrary dimensions and charged black holes in D=5, D=4, and D=7 maximally supersymmetric gauged supergravities, the Cardy-Verlinde formula holds as well, but a proper internal energy which corresponds to the mass of supersymmetric backgrounds must be subtracted from the total energy. It is failed to rewrite the entropy of corresponding conformal field theories in terms of the Cardy-Verlinde formula for the AdS black holes in the Lovelock gravity.Comment: 18 pages, latex, no figures, discussions on the charged AdS black holes change