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An entropy current and the second law in higher derivative theories of gravity

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arxiv 2105.06455 v2 pith:DKEI52GH submitted 2021-05-13 hep-th gr-qc

classification hep-thgr-qc
keywords entropycurrentgravitytheoriesblackderivativehighersecond
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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We construct a proof of the second law of thermodynamics in an arbitrary diffeomorphism invariant theory of gravity working within the approximation of linearized dynamical fluctuations around stationary black holes. We achieve this by establishing the existence of an entropy current defined on the horizon of the dynamically perturbed black hole in such theories. By construction, this entropy current has non-negative divergence, suggestive of a mechanism for the dynamical black hole to approach a final equilibrium configuration via entropy production as well as the spatial flow of it on the null horizon. This enables us to argue for the second law in its strongest possible form, which has a manifest locality at each space-time point. We explicitly check that the form of the entropy current that we construct in this paper exactly matches with previously reported expressions computed considering specific four derivative theories of higher curvature gravity. Using the same set up we also provide an alternative proof of the physical process version of the first law applicable to arbitrary higher derivative theories of gravity.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Gravitational focusing and horizon entropy for higher-spin fields

    gr-qc 2024-12 conditional novelty 7.0 of 10

    Higher-spin fields introduce indefinite terms into the generalized Raychaudhuri equation on Killing horizons, blocking a focusing theorem and a well-defined Wall entropy unless a proposed focusing condition is imposed.

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    hep-th 2025-09 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    The zeroth law of black hole thermodynamics holds to all perturbative orders for higher curvature Einstein-Proca effective field theories.

  3. Gravitational Effective Field Theories and Black Hole Mechanics

    gr-qc 2024-11 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    In effective field theories of gravity with electromagnetism and scalars, surface gravity and electric potential are constant on black hole horizons up to the accuracy of the EFT, and a modified entropy satisfies the ...

  4. A comparison of two constructions for dynamical corrections to Wald entropy

    hep-th 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0 of 10

    For small perturbations, the dynamical entropy S_dyn and Wall's entropy S_Wall satisfy S_dyn = (1-v∂_v)S_Wall, and this paper gives a local algorithm that reconstructs S_Wall from S_dyn once a bifurcation-surface cond...

  5. Dynamical Entropy Is a Noether Charge

    hep-th 2026-07 reject novelty 5.0 of 10

    A Noether-charge derivation of the known HWZ dynamical entropy for generic null surfaces, whose local second-law proof is invalid as printed because Eq. (19) has the wrong sign in K.

  6. Generalised focusing theorem and dynamical horizon entropy in diffeomorphism-invariant theories

    gr-qc 2025-08 unverdicted novelty 2.0 of 10

    A conference summary presenting the generalized focusing theorem and Wall entropy for diffeomorphism-invariant gravity theories, with a proposed condition for higher-spin fields.

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