On the gravitational partition function under volume constraints

Abstract: The Euclidean action serves as a bridge between gravitational thermodynamics and the partition function. In this work, we further examine the gravitational partition function under a fixed volume constraint, extending the fixed volume on-shell geometry in the massless case. Moving beyond this massless configuration, we construct solutions with nonzero mass functions, leading to a new class of volume-constrained Euclidean geometries (VCEGs). The VCEG contains both a boundary and a horizon, and its Euclidean action is determined solely by the contribution from the horizon. However, further investigation suggests that this boundary appears to be artificially constructed and can be extended, giving rise to the extended VCEGs. These geometries feature two horizons, each with a conical singularity, and their action is given by one-quarter of the sum of the areas of the two horizons. In general, the conical singularities on both horizons cannot be simultaneously removed, except at a critical mass $m = m^*$, which defines the critical extended VCEG. Configurations with conical singularities are interpreted as constrained gravitational instantons. An analysis of their contributions to the partition function and topology reveals a close analogy between the extended VCEGs and the Euclidean Schwarzschild-de Sitter static patch, suggesting that the volume constraint effectively plays a role akin to that of a cosmological constant in semiclassical quantum gravity.