Thermodynamics of horizons: de Sitter black holes and reentrant phase transitions

Abstract: In this paper we propose a straightforward method for understanding the thermodynamics of black holes in de Sitter space, one that will allow us to study these black holes in a way that is analogous to the anti-de Sitter case. As per usual, we formulate separate thermodynamic first laws for each horizon present in the spacetime, and study their thermodynamics as if they were independent systems characterized by their own temperature. That these systems are not entirely independent and various thermodynamic quantities in them are in fact "correlated" is reflected by the fact that their thermodynamics can be captured by a single Gibbs free energy-like thermodynamic potential. This quantity contains information about possible phase transitions in the system and allows us to uncover a rich phase structure for de Sitter black holes. In particular, we discover reentrant phase transitions for Kerr-dS black holes in six dimensions, a phenomenon recently observed for their six dimensional AdS cousins.