Spontaneous Lorentz violation, negative energy, and the second law of thermodynamics

2009/04/30 by Brian Feldstein
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.80.044020

published as Phys.Rev.D80:044020,2009 · 16 pages; v2: published version

openalex publication_date 2009/08/21 · arxiv created 2009/10/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We reconsider the possibility of violating the generalized second law of thermodynamics in theories with spontaneous Lorentz violation. It has been proposed that this may be accomplished in particular with a black hole immersed in a ghost condensate background, which may be taken to break Lorentz invariance without appreciably distorting the space-time geometry. In this paper we show that there in fact exist solutions explicitly describing the flow of negative energy into these black holes, allowing for violation of the second law in a very simple way. This second law violation is independent of any additional assumptions such as couplings of the ghost condensate to secondary fields, and suggests that violation of the null energy condition may be the true source of pathology in these theories.

Citations

• Universal upper bound on the entropy-to-energy ratio for bounded systems
• An accelerating universe and cosmological perturbation in the ghost condensate
• Viscosity in Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories from Black Hole Physics
• Black hole bound on the number of species and quantum gravity at CERN LHC
• Causality, Analyticity and an IR Obstruction to UV Completion
• Black Holes and Entropy
• Gravity with a dynamical preferred frame
• Lorentz violation and perpetual motion