Lovelock black holes surrounded by quintessence

Abstract

Lovelock gravity consisting of the dimensionally continued Euler densities is a natural generalization of general relativity to higher dimensions such that equations of motion are still second order, and the theory is free of ghosts. A scalar field with a positive potential that yields an accelerating universe has been termed quintessence. We present exact black hole solutions in $D$-dimensional Lovelock gravity surrounded by quintessence matter and also perform a detailed thermodynamical study. Further, we find that the mass, entropy, and temperature of the black hole are corrected due to the quintessence background. In particular, we find that phase transition occurs with divergence of heat capacity at the critical horizon radius, and that specific heat becomes positive for $r_h<r_c$ allowing the black hole to become thermodynamically stable.