Thermalon mediated phase transitions in Gauss-Bonnet gravity

Abstract

Thermalons can mediate phase transitions between different vacua in higher curvature gravity, potentially changing the asymptotic structure of the spacetime. Treating the cosmological constant as a dynamical parameter, we study these phase transitions in the context of extended thermodynamic phase space. We find that in addition to the AdS to dS phase transitions previously studied, thermal AdS space can undergo a phase transition to an asymptotically flat black hole geometry. In the context of AdS to AdS transitions, we comment on the similarities and differences between thermalon transitions and the Hawking-Page transition.