The Hawking Temperature of Anti-de Sitter Black Holes: Topology and Phase Transitions

Abstract: In this work we determine how the description of a four-dimensional Schwarzschild-anti de Sitter black hole affects the topological calculation of its Hawking temperature. It is shown that a two-dimensional approach is required due to the presence of the Hawking-Page phase transition which destabilises the spacetime's topology. We prove that a dimensional reduction removes the phase transition and hence stabilises the system. This hints at a previously unknown feature of black hole thermodynamics, namely that certain black holes may demand a lower-dimensional description in order to define their Hawking temperatures.