On Gravitational Entropy of de Sitter Universe
Abstract
The paper deals with the calculation of the gravitational entropy in the context of teleparallel gravity for de Sitter space-time. In such a theory it is possible to define gravitational energy and pressure; thus we use those expressions to construct the gravitational entropy. We use the temperature as a function of the cosmological constant and write the first law of thermodynamics from which we obtain the entropy. In the limit Λ ≪ 1 we find that the entropy is proportional to volume, for a specific temperature’s choice; we find that ΔS ≥ 0 as well. We also identify a phase transition in de Sitter space-time by analyzing the specific heat.
1. Introduction
The idea of black hole thermodynamics started with the pioneering works of Bekenstein and Hawking [1, 2]. It was noted that the area of the event horizon behaves as an entropy. Together with such discovery it was also noted that it has a specific temperature. Thus it radiates and evaporates leading to a loss of the information inside the black hole, which apparently violates the second law of thermodynamics. It was the so-called information paradox [3]. Dolan has pointed out that such study was incomplete without the term pdV in the first law of thermodynamics [4]. However the concept of gravitational pressure is difficult to establish as the very idea of gravitational energy. The matter of the definition of gravitational energy has a long story and yet it is a very controversial theme. The main approaches in this subject are Komar integrals [5], ADM formalism [6], and quasi-local expressions [7, 8]. In opposition to general relativity, in teleparallel gravity those quantities can be well defined.
Teleparallel Equivalent to General Relativity (TEGR) is an alternative theory of gravitation constructed out in terms of the tetrad field on Weitzenböck geometry. It was first proposed by Einstein in an attempt to derive a unified field theory [9]. Later it was revived with a paper entitled “New General Relativity” [10]; since then a lot of improvement has been made in the understanding of gravitational energy and the role of torsion [11, 12]. In the context of TEGR it is possible to define an expression for gravitational energy which is invariant under coordinates transformation and dependent on the reference frame. Those features are present in the special theory of relativity and there is no physical reason to abandon such ideas once one has dealt with a gravitational theory. Using the field equations of TEGR, it is possible to define an expression for the gravitational pressure. Therefore a natural extension is to define an expression for the gravitational entropy. The advantage of this procedure is defining an entropy in terms of purely thermodynamical quantities such as energy and pressure. This will be our main goal in this paper, for de Sitter Universe. This Universe model is important because it describes an expanding empty space. Thus it is possible to shed light on the vacuum energy and cosmological inflationary models.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we present the main ideas of teleparallel gravity. From field equation we derive the total energy and pressure. In Section 3, we calculate such quantities for de Sitter Universe, and then we use the first law of thermodynamics to get the gravitational entropy. To achieve such aim, we have interpreted the temperature of the system as a function of the cosmological constant. Finally we present our concluding remarks in Section 4.
Notation. Space-time indices μ, ν, … and SO(3,1) indices a, b, … run from 0 to 3. Time and space indices are indicated according to μ = 0, i, a = (0), (i). The tetrad field is denoted by and the determinant of the tetrad field is represented by . In addition we adopt units where G = kb = c = 1, unless otherwise stated.
2. Teleparallel Equivalent to General Relativity (TEGR)
We point out that general relativity and teleparallel gravity are equivalent only concerning dynamical features. This means that both theories will predict the same behavior of a test particle around a mass distribution. In other words both of them will agree in the classical experimental tests such as Mercury’s perihelion deviation and the bending of light. However predictions concerning the gravitational field features are strictly different, such as gravitational energy, momentum, and angular momentum. For instance, there is no analogous tensor in general relativity equivalent to the gravitational energy-momentum tensor in (10). The main reason for this is that some of the tensorial quantities in teleparallel gravity are analogous to connections in Riemannian geometry which gives rise to pseudo-tensors describing gravitational energy and momentum. Particularly there is no tensorial form, in Riemannian geometry, of Taμν on Weitzenböck geometry. The problem of defining gravitational energy in general relativity is a long-standing one; as a consequence any thermodynamical attempt to define a gravitational entropy would be plagued by the same problems. On the other hand such a quantity is natural in teleparallel gravity; thus our approach has several advantages. In Table 1, we chart the features of general relativity and teleparallel gravity.
General relativity | Teleparallel gravity | |
---|---|---|
Field equations | Gμν = kTμν | Equivalent |
Gravitational energy-momentum tensor | Nonexistent | taμ |
Gravitational energy | ADM/Komar expressions | Defined from taμ |
Gravitational pressure | Nonexistent | Defined from taμ |
Gravitational entropy | Proportional to the area | Defined from taμ |
We stress out that the definition of entropy in general relativity is not of general validity since it demands the existence of matter as in the black hole context. It is possible to force both definitions to agree at some point by the choice of temperature; however it seems an arbitrary procedure.
3. The Gravitational Entropy for de Sitter Space-Time
In Figure 1 we plotted the entropy as a function of r0. We normalized the horizon radius, R = 1; thus the choice of temperature as dependent on the cosmological constant will not affect the entropy. We see a divergence when the space reaches the horizon volume which is an expected behavior.

Next we will analyze how the entropy can depend on the horizon area and two remarkable choices for the temperature. The first one is the well-known temperature of de Sitter space-time, and the second one is based on an attempt to obtain a gravitational entropy independent of the temperature.
3.1. Entropy and Horizon Area
If one assumes the Hawking area dependence for the entropy then it is possible to analyze the consequences of this fact in the context of teleparallel gravity as performed in [25]; however in this subsection we are interested in obtaining such a dependence assuming the existence of a gravitational energy and pressure. We point out that, to obtain the entropy, one should consider it as a thermodynamical potential which depends on the energy and the volume; thus the temperature should be constant. For instance, if we intend to obtain the heat capacity then we should consider the energy as the potential; only then can the temperature change.
In [26] an entropy is constructed for de Sitter space-time. We point out that the procedure adopted in such a reference is an attempt to identify the term pdV which seems to be missing in gravitational thermodynamics as discussed by Dolan [4]. In order to perform such an aim it is usual to assume the Hawking entropy and as a consequence obtain the other terms in the first law of thermodynamics. In this paper we follow the opposite path; we use the gravitational pressure defined in the framework of teleparallel gravity to find the entropy. In this sense it is mandatory to have a satisfactory definition of gravitational energy which can also be found in teleparallel gravity.
Thus in our opinion the Hawking entropy is a nonthermodynamical expression, since it is defined in a context where some trouble to define gravitational energy and pressure is observed. Clearly the dependency of the entropy on the horizon area is an important theoretical insight in this problem. In fact it has been used to propose an analog of Higgs mechanism in cosmology [27], where the de Sitter space plays an important role. In [28] the authors deal with a statistic mechanics approach of de Sitter entropy which is proportional to horizon area. In such cases the problem of composing the full thermodynamical picture with energy, pressure, and entropy is a serious obstacle. Hence, once there is no experimental evidence to support the Hawking expression, our expression should be considered as a candidate to represent the gravitational entropy.
3.2. de Sitter Temperature
3.3. Temperature as the Cosmological Constant
4. Conclusion
In this paper we have obtained the gravitational entropy for de Sitter space-time in the framework of teleparallel gravity. Such a result was obtained by purely thermodynamical quantities; that is, using concepts such as energy and pressure that can be defined in TEGR, we have derived an expression for the entropy. To obtain this we have used the first law of thermodynamics in which the temperature is a function of the cosmological constant. We have assumed that because we have only two parameters in this system, the radius of the hypersurface of integration, r0, which dictates how the volume varies, and the cosmological constant, Λ. We investigated the entropy in the limit Λ ≪ 1 for two definitions of temperature: the first one was the well-known de Sitter temperature and the second one was the very cosmological constant. We have obtained that the entropy is proportional solely to the 3D volume, with this last temperature’s choice, yet the entropy always increases in this case; for example, ΔS ≥ 0. Then we have relaxed the condition T = Λ = const. to obtain the specific heat at constant volume for each case. If we have chosen the temperature as constant then, in the limit Λ ≪ 1, it would be impossible to establish a specific heat. We have found that the specific heat goes to zero in the limit T → 0 in the first case and that it goes to a constant, proportional to the 3D volume, in the second case, in the same limit. By the analysis of the specific heat we conclude that the de Sitter Universe performed a phase transition at some point of its evolution. The entropy also diverges with a critical temperature which corroborates such an idea of phase transition. We note that in both cases the critical temperatures lead to the same critical cosmological constant which is . We also showed that the entropy, defined in teleparallel gravity, is not necessarily equal to the area of the event horizon. It is not the case of Hawking expression which is constructed out in the context of general relativity where one cannot deal with meaningful expressions of gravitational energy and pressure. The choice to calculate the entropy of a de Sitter space-time was guided by two reasons. The first one is that the most accepted expression of entropy is based on nonthermodynamical approach in which the physical meaning relies on matter fields. Thus analyzing an expanding empty space we could shed light on the very nature of gravitational field. The second reason is that it is believed that any quantum gravity theory should break the Lorentz invariance [31]. We speculate that in constructing an effective theory of gravitation, in order to quantize it, the torsion tensor will self-interact with the geometry of space-time which could be interpreted as a mean field representing the spin of the matter distribution.
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.