Thermodynamical instabilities of perfect fluid spheres in General Relativity

Abstract

For a static, perfect fluid sphere with a general equation of state, we obtain the relativistic equation of hydrostatic equilibrium, namely the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkov equation, as the thermodynamical equilibrium in the microcanonical, as well as the canonical, ensemble. We find that the stability condition determined by the second variation of entropy coincides with the dynamical stability condition derived by the variations to first order in the dynamical Einstein's equations. Thus, we show the equivalence of microcanonical thermodynamical stability with linear dynamical stability for a static, spherically symmetric field in General Relativity. We calculate the Newtonian limit and find the interesting property that the microcanonical ensemble in General Relativity transforms to the canonical ensemble for non-relativistic dust particles. Finally, for specific kinds of systems, we study the effect of the cosmological constant on the microcanonical thermodynamical stability of fluid spheres. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.