Black hole equations of state and response functions
Abstract
We systematically develop a framework for equilibrium thermodynamics in terms of thermodynamic representations, which are choices of thermodynamic potential and independent variables, one from each conjugate pair. In each representation, equations of state arise from first derivatives of the potential and response functions from its second derivatives. We apply this framework to ideal gases and to Schwarzschild black holes in a spherical cavity in various representations, interpreting the cavity area and its conjugate surface pressure as the thermodynamic volume and pressure of a holographically dual system. For this quasi-local Schwarzschild black hole, stability depends on the thermodynamic representation, or equivalently on which variables are held fixed under equilibrium perturbations. The large black hole branch is thermally stable at fixed volume but mechanically unstable under isothermal compression, while the system is mechanically stable under adiabatic compression everywhere. At fixed pressure, the black hole is thermally unstable throughout the physical state space. We also find that the thermal expansion coefficient is negative everywhere and show that isenthalpic expansion always cools the black hole. More broadly, the framework provides a systematic route to deriving equations of state and response functions for a wide class of black hole systems using quasi-local gravitational thermodynamics.
Related
- Accretion onto a moving black hole for stiff equations of state
- Imprint of the black hole singularity on thermal two-point functions
- Analytic solutions for the gravitational spin Hall equations and black hole shadows
- Quasinormal modes of Reissner-Nordström black hole from bound state spectrum
- Second-order scattering response of a Schwarzschild black hole
BibTeX
@misc{borsboom2026black,
title = {{Black hole equations of state and response functions}},
author = {Silvester G. A. Borsboom and Manus R. Visser},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2606.17171},
eprint = {2606.17171},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17171},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Black hole equations of state and response functions
AU - Silvester G. A. Borsboom
AU - Manus R. Visser
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2606.17171
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.17171
AB - We systematically develop a framework for equilibrium thermodynamics in terms of thermodynamic representations, which are choices of thermodynamic potential and independent variables, one from each conjugate pair. In each representation, equations of state arise from first derivatives of the potential and response functions from its second derivatives. We apply this framework to ideal gases and to Schwarzschild black holes in a spherical cavity in various representations, interpreting the cavity area and its conjugate surface pressure as the thermodynamic volume and pressure of a holographically dual system. For this quasi-local Schwarzschild black hole, stability depends on the thermodynamic representation, or equivalently on which variables are held fixed under equilibrium perturbations. The large black hole branch is thermally stable at fixed volume but mechanically unstable under isothermal compression, while the system is mechanically stable under adiabatic compression everywhere. At fixed pressure, the black hole is thermally unstable throughout the physical state space. We also find that the thermal expansion coefficient is negative everywhere and show that isenthalpic expansion always cools the black hole. More broadly, the framework provides a systematic route to deriving equations of state and response functions for a wide class of black hole systems using quasi-local gravitational thermodynamics.
ER -