Phase transition and thermodynamic geometry of $f(R)$ AdS black holes in the grand canonical ensemble

Abstract: The phase transition of four-dimensional charged AdS black hole solution in the $R+f(R)$ gravity with constant curvature is investigated in the grand canonical ensemble, where we find novel characteristics quite different from that in canonical ensemble. There exists no critical point for $T-S$ curve while in former research critical point was found for both the $T-S$ curve and $T-r_+$ curve when the electric charge of $f(R)$ black holes is kept fixed. Moreover, we derive the explicit expression for the specific heat, the analog of volume expansion coefficient and isothermal compressibility coefficient when the electric potential of $f(R)$ AdS black hole is fixed. The specific heat $C_\Phi$ encounters a divergence when $0<\Phi<b$ while there is no divergence for the case $\Phi>b$. This finding also differs from the result in the canonical ensemble, where there may be two, one or no divergence points for the specific heat $C_Q$. To examine the phase structure newly found in the grand canonical ensemble, we appeal to the well-known thermodynamic geometry tools and derive the analytic expressions for both the Weinhold scalar curvature and Ruppeiner scalar curvature. It is shown that they diverge exactly where the specific heat $C_\Phi$ diverges.