First Principle Study of Gravitational Pressure and Thermodynamics

of FRW Universe
Haximjan Abdusattar,1, ∗ Shi-Bei Kong,1, † Wen-Long You,1, 2, ‡ Hongsheng Zhang,3, 4, § and Ya-Peng Hu B1, 2, 5, ¶
1
College of Physics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China
2
Key Laboratory of Aerospace Information Materials and Physics (NUAA), MIIT, Nanjing 211106, China
3
School of Physics and Technology, University of Jinan,
336 West Road of Nan Xinzhuang, Jinan, Shandong 250022, China
4
Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
5
Center for Gravitation and Cosmology, College of Physical Science
and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
We make a first principle study of gravitational pressure in cosmic thermodynamics. The pressure is
arXiv:2108.09407v4 [gr-qc] 29 Dec 2022

directly derived from the unified first law, in fact the Einstein field equation in spherically symmetric
spacetime. By using this pressure, we obtain the thermodynamics for the FRW universe, especially
presenting the gravitational equation of state for the FRW spacetime itself, i.e. P = P (RA , T )
for the first time. Furthermore, we study the Joule-Thomson expansion as an application of the
thermodynamic equation of state to find the cooling-heating property of the FRW universe. We
demonstrate that there is an inversion temperature for a FRW universe if its enthalpy H is negative.
These investigations shed insights on the evolution of our universe in view of thermodynamics.

I. INTRODUCTION

Black hole thermodynamics takes a pivotal status in modern theoretical physics. It is an arena of thermodynamics,
statistical mechanics, gravity and quantum mechanics. In particular the entropy of black hole presents a sharpest
probe into quantum gravity [1–3]. Nowadays black hole thermodynamics already goes beyond the study of black
hole itself. The thermodynamic concepts such as gravitational entropy and temperature, have been applied to other
gravity-controlled systems, e.g. FRW universe [4, 5] and pure dS spacetime [6], where no black hole appears. In all
these systems, significant research progresses have been made in thermodynamics, which implies essential relationship
between gravity and thermodynamics.
Traditional black hole thermodynamics suffers from an intractable problem in applications to realistic celestial
objects, that is, the concept of event horizon is teleological, i.e. one has to acquire all the information at future infinity
to determine the present thermodynamic quantities. An interesting approach to solve this problem is the unified first
law, in which only quasi-local quantities are involved. For spherically symmetric spacetime, the unified first law can be
derived from the Einstein field equation. In spherically symmetric spacetime, one can define a conserved charge, which
is the Misner-Sharp energy [7–11],
Z
1
MM S = − ∗(Tab K b ) , (1.1)
8π

for the Kodama vector K a corresponding to the conserved current Tab K b . By using this conserved charge, one obtains
the general form of the unified first law,

dMM S = A
eΨe i dxi + W
f dVe (1.2)

(see II for detailed explanation). In the above equation, all the quantities are quasi-locally measured, and the last term
is related to a generalized force.

BCorresponding author
∗ Electronic address: [email protected]
† Electronic address: [email protected]
‡ Electronic address: [email protected]
§ Electronic address: sps [email protected]
¶ Electronic address: [email protected]
 2

In this quasi-local progress of gravitational thermodynamics, one only needs to consider apparent horizon, and thus
the teleological problem is evaded. Very importantly a generalized force term appears naturally, which is identified
as the spacetime pressure. In some studies of AdS black hole thermodynamics, pressure was also invoked to trigger
phase transition in extended phase space [12–15] (see also [16–23] for related works). However, pressure in these
studies is only an analogy of the effects of the cosmological constant in cosmology PΛ = −Λ/8π [24–27]. A noteworthy
point in the phase transition in extended phase space is that different cosmological constants correspond to different
gravity theories. Thus the extended phase space represents the phase space of different theories rather than different
solutions of a theory. This is a quite interesting progress from the viewpoint of ensemble theory. We will study the
thermodynamics of FRW universe from the unified first law, and thus directly from Einstein field equation. One will
see that pressure gets a natural definition.
Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) universe is a dynamical space-time. It has been widely accepted that the
FRW universe has thermodynamics embodied on the apparent horizon, whose area plays the role of the entropy and
surface gravity behaves as temperature. In spirit of Jacobson’s derivation [28] of the Einstein field equations from the
Clausius relation, Cai and Kim [4] first investigated the Friedmann equations of the FRW universe on the apparent
horizon, whose thermodynamics is associated with the unified first law [8, 29]. A similar connection between the
Friedmann equations and the first law of thermodynamics has also been discovered in alternative theories of gravity
[30, 31]. Related approaches on black hole thermodynamics can be found in [32]. Researches on the thermodynamics
of FRW universe shed light on inherent relationship between thermodynamics and gravity. It may be a universal and
fundamental finding that would be helpful to decode the nature and the quantization of gravity.
To our knowledge, the thermodynamics of the FRW universe has not been deeply and extensively investigated.
Besides the laws of thermodynamics, to describe the behavior of a thermodynamic system, it is usually crucial to
construct its thermodynamic equation of state. This is difficult for a FRW universe, unless we find a proper definition
of its thermodynamic pressure corresponding to the physics related to the apparent horizon. It should be emphasized
that, different from Refs. [24–27] where the pressure is simply defined by the cosmological constant, in this paper we
discover a more suitable definition of the thermodynamic pressure for the FRW universe

P ≡ W − PΛ , (1.3)

where W is the work density of the matter field W := −hij T ij /2, and PΛ = −Λ/8π is the conventional pressure
defined for the AdS black hole thermodynamics. In addition, hij and T ij are the 0, 1-components of the metric and
the stress-tensor [30, 33] with i, j = 0, 1, x0 = t, x1 = r. By using this new definition of pressure, we derive the
thermodynamic equation of state P = P (RA , T ) for a FRW spacetime with the cosmological constant for the first time.
Furthermore, we will study Joule-Thomson expansion of the FRW universe as an application of the thermodynamic
equation of state P = P (RA , T ). In classical thermodynamics, the Joule-Thomson expansion describes the expansion
of gas passing through a throat from a high pressure region to a low pressure region with a constant enthalpy. In the
framework of extended black hole thermodynamics, Ref.[34] creatively applied the famous Joule-Thomson expansion
of the van der Waals systems to the charged AdS black hole, and found the existence of the inversion temperature
and inversion pressure. Since then, a great deal of attention has been drawn to this topic in various black holes
system, such as Kerr–AdS black holes [35], Gauss-Bonnet black holes [36], regular (Bardeen)-AdS black holes [37–39],
and Born-Infeld AdS black holes [40], see more in Refs.[41–46]. It would be interesting, and non-trivial to find the
corresponding results in the thermodynamics of the universe. In this work, we will discuss the Joule-Thomson expansion
of the FRW universe in analogy to AdS black holes. We demonstrate that the existence of inversion temperature and
inversion pressure depends on the negative value of enthalpy H for a FRW universe, i.e. H < 0.
The organization of this paper is as follows. In Sec.II, we review thermodynamics of FRW universe on the apparent
horizon in Einstein gravity without cosmological constant. In Sec.III, we study the unified first law for a FRW universe
with the cosmological constant, and further derive the thermodynamic equation of state P = P (RA , T ). In Sec.IV, we
study the Joule-Thomson expansion of FRW universe as an application of the thermodynamic equation of state. In
Sec.V, we present conclusions and discussion of this paper.

II. REVIEW: PREVIOUS RESULTS OF THE THERMODYNAMICS IN A FRW UNIVERSE

In this section, for convenience to make our main results more readable, we will briefly review the thermodynamics
in a FRW Universe with zero cosmological constant in previous work, i.e. the apparent horizon, Hawking temperature
and the first law of thermodynamics for a FRW universe in Einstein gravity with the absence of cosmological constant.
In an isotropic coordinate system xµ = (t, r, θ, ϕ), the line element of a FRW universe is written

dr2
 
2 2 2 2 2 2 2


ds = −dt + a (t) + r dθ + sin θdϕ , (2.1)
1 − kr2
 3

where a(t) is a scale factor describing the evolution of the universe, and k = +1, 0, −1 are the spatial curvatures
corresponding to a spherical, flat and hyperbolic universes, respectively1 . If one introduces the areal radius R(t, r) ≡
a(t)r, the line element (2.1) can be further rewritten as
ds2 = hij dxi dxj + R2 (t, r) dθ2 + sin2 θdϕ2 ,


(2.2)
 2

a (t)
where x0 = t, x1 = r, hij = diag − 1, 1−kr 2 . Note that, this metric is convenient to investigate the thermodynamics
for a dynamical spacetime with the spherical symmetry, and for simplicity we denote a = a(t), R = R(t, r) in the
following.
The apparent horizon is a trapped surface with vanishing expansion hij ∂i R∂j R = 0 [51], and hence the apparent
horizon of a FRW universe RA is easily solved as [4]
1
RA = q , (2.3)
k
H2 + a2

where H = H(t) := ȧ/a is the Hubble parameter characterizing the expansion rate of the universe, and it is clear that
different k corresponds to different size of the horizon with same the Hubble parameter. From the location of apparent
horizon, we easily obtain a useful equality in the following as

3
 k
ṘA = −RA H Ḣ − 2 , (2.4)
a
where the derivative of RA is with respect to the cosmic time t, and it describes the nature of time dependence of the
apparent horizon.
The surface gravity on the apparent horizon is given by [8, 30]
1 √ 
κ = √ ∂i −h hij ∂j R , (2.5)
2 −h
where h = det(hij ). Therefore, the surface gravity of the apparent horizon in a FRW universe is derived as

1  ṘA 
κ=− 1− , (2.6)
RA 2HRA
and hence the Hawking temperature on the apparent horizon of the FRW universe is
|κ| 1  ṘA 
T ≡ = 1− , (2.7)
2π 2πRA 2HRA
where the surface gravity of the apparent horizon is usually negative in a FRW universe [30], i.e. κ < 0, which will
impose a constraint on the matter field such as a perfect fluid, see Appendix A for related discussion. When the
apparent horizon RA changes very slowly, i.e. ṘA /(2HRA )  1, the Hawking temperature is written simply as [52]
1
T ≈ . (2.8)
2πRA
However, ṘA is in fact not necessarily a small quantity, and hence we will use the general expression of temperature in
Eq.(2.7) to perform the following investigations.
The first law of thermodynamics for a FRW universe is usually inspired from the well-known unified first law [7, 8, 11]

dE
e=A
eΨe i dxi + W
f dVe , (2.9)
e = 4πR2 and Ve = 4πR3 /3 are area and volume of the 3-dimensional sphere with radius R. The work density
where A
W
f and energy-supply Ψ
e i are defined as

f := − 1 hij Tij ,
W e i := T j ∂j R + W
Ψ f ∂i R , (2.10)
i
2

1 The present observations imply that Ωk ∼ (−0.02, 0) (depending on different observations and different joint analysis) [47–50]. In fact,
one never fixes the spatial curvature to be exactly zero from observations. Theoretically, the spatial curvature is not an objective quantity
in relativity theory, which depends on sling or observers.
 4

where Tij is the projection of the energy-momentum tensor Tµν of the matter in the (t, r) directions. In addition, E
e
is the Misner-Sharp energy inside the radius R in a spherically symmetric spacetime with metric Eq.(2.2). In the
Einstein gravity without cosmological constant, the Misner-Sharp energy is given by [4, 5, 8]

e = R (1 − hij ∂i R∂j R) .
E (2.11)
2
For a FRW filled with the perfect fluid

Tµν = (ρ + p)uµ uν + pgµν , (2.12)

where the four-velocity of the fluid is uµ = √ 1 δµ ,

−gtt t
ρ and p are the energy density and pressure, respectively, one can
further obtain

f = − 1 (Ttt + Trr ) = 1 (ρ − p),

W Ψ e i dxi = 1 (ρ + p)(−HRdt + adr) .
e ≡Ψ (2.13)
2 2 2
Therefore, after projecting the unified first law Eq.(2.9) on the apparent horizon of a FRW universe, one finally obtains
the first law of thermodynamics for a FRW universe
κ
dE = dA + W dV = −T dS + W dV , (2.14)
8π
where the expression of the temperature is in (2.7) and

e R=R = RA , S = A |R=R = πR2 , V = Ve |R=R = 4 πR3 , W = W

f |R=R = 1 (ρ − p) .
e
E = E| A (2.15)
A
2 4 A A
3 A A
2
It should be pointed out that the minus sign before T dS in (2.14) arises from the surface gravity κ on apparent horizon
is negative, and hence one keeps the corresponding temperature T positive [30, 53]. In addition, the minus sign also
relates to the fact that the total energy flows into the apparent horizon.

III. THERMODYNAMIC EQUATION OF STATE FOR A FRW UNIVERSE WITH THE

COSMOLOGICAL CONSTANT

In the previous section, the thermodynamics of a FRW universe is investigated in the absence of a cosmological
constant. In this section, we derive the thermodynamic equation of state for a FRW universe with the cosmological
constant, since the thermodynamic pressure in the AdS black hole cases has been found to relate with the cosmological
constant. We first obtain the unified first law of thermodynamics by using the Misner-Sharp energy and Einstein field
equations of a FRW universe with the cosmological constant.
Note that the original form (2.11) for the Misner-Sharp energy is applicable for Einstein gravity without cosmological
constant in four dimensions. In addition, a generalization of the Misner-Sharp energy in presence of the cosmological
constant Λ has also been considered in Einstein gravity as well as the Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity, f (R) gravity, etc.
In FRW universe, the Misner-Sharp energy with Λ in Einstein gravity M f is obtained from [9–11, 54]
  
R Λ 2 2 2 k
M=
f − R +R H + 2 . (3.1)
2 3 a
The Einstein field equation with the cosmological constant is

Gµν + Λgµν = 8πTµν . (3.2)

For the FRW metric (2.2) and energy-momentum tensor (2.12), the (t, t) component of the above Einstein field equation
is easily written as
k 8π Λ
H2 + 2
= ρ+ , (3.3)
a 3 3
which is just the first Friedmann equation. On the other hand, from the energy-momentum conservation law of matter
fields ∇ν T µν = 0, one finds the continuity equation [54]

ρ̇ + 3H(ρ + p) = 0 . (3.4)
 5

By differentiation of the Misner-Sharp energy (3.1) and combination with Eqs. (2.9), (3.3) and (3.4), we have

R2 R3
     
3 k 2 k
dM = R H Ḣ − 2 dt +
f 3 H + 2 − Λ dR − dΛ
a 2 a 6
R3
= −4πR3 H(ρ + p)dt + 4πR2 ρdR − dΛ
6
3
= AeΨ
e +W f dVe − R dΛ , (3.5)
6
which is just the unified first law of thermodynamics of a FRW universe with the cosmological constant Λ. Here,
similar with studies of critical phenomenon in AdS black hole thermodynamic cases with the cosmological constant, we
consider the cosmological constant in Eq.(3.5) as a variable quantity2 , and identify the cosmological constant as a
pressure
Λ
PΛ = − . (3.6)
8π
Then the Eq.(3.5) can be rewritten as

dM
f=A
eΨe +W
f dVe + Ve dPΛ . (3.7)

From which, we can find that the volume Ve = 4πR3 /3 of 3-dimensional sphere with radius R conjugates to the pressure
PΛ , too. At the apparent horizon, similar with Eq.(2.14), one gets the first law of thermodynamics in the extended
phase space of a FRW universe with the cosmological constant
κ
dM = dA + W dV + V dPΛ = −T dS + W dV + V dPΛ , (3.8)
8π
where

f|R=R = RA (1 − Λ R2 ), S = A |R=R = πR2 , V = Ve |R=R = 4 πR3 , W = W

f |R=R = 1 (ρ − p) . (3.9)
e
M =M A A A A A A A
2 3 4 3 2
It should be emphasized that there are two differences from studies of critical phenomenon in AdS black hole
thermodynamic cases with the cosmological constant. One is the minus sign before T dS, while the other is that an
extra work term W dV is added. Since W can be also considered as the pressure, a subtlety of choosing a suitable
pressure to obtain the thermodynamic equation of state for a FRW universe with the cosmological constant appears.
In our this paper, we will follow the spirit of a proper definition from the first law of thermodynamics to find a suitable
thermodynamic pressure. From Eq.(3.8), in fact we can further rewrite it as the standard form

dU = T dS − P dV , (3.10)
3
where the corresponding internal energy U and pressure P are

U ≡ −M + V PΛ , P ≡ W − PΛ . (3.11)

Obviously, here the pressure P will be more suitable to be the thermodynamic pressure for a FRW universe with
the cosmological constant, and volume V = 43 πRA
3
is just the thermodynamic volume conjugates to thermodynamic
pressure P .

2 Different cosmological constants corresponds to different FRW universes in an ensemble. This method is taken in many modern theories,
e.g. the landscape of string theory.
3 Note that, we have put an extra minus sign in front of M in (3.11) to let U absorb the minus sign in front of the T dS-term in the first law

(3.8) (see e.g. [55, 56] for various ways of treating this minus sign). This treatment results in a negative internal energy U = −RA /2 < 0,
which appears to be a little strange. In fact, whether the internal energy is negative depends on the choice of the reference state. In
principle one could alternatively define the internal energy as Ue = −M + PΛ V + U0 = U + U0 , where U0 is a constant that can be fixed
by the choice of the reference state, and hence U e is not necessarily negative. In our paper, we have chosen the reference state at RA = 0,
that is, we have set Ue (RA = 0) = 0 and hence U0 = 0. However, here we should emphasize that it is dU e = dU instead of Ue that is of
physical importance in the context of our paper. This can be easily seen from the fact that the choice of U0 does not affect the relation
shown in the first law (3.10). More importantly, in the following part of this paper, since the definition of thermodynamic pressure P is
directly read off from the first law, the equation of state will be also independent of the choice of U0 .
 6

In the following, basing on the above proper definition of thermodynamic pressure P , we derive the thermodynamic
equation of state in the extended phase space for a FRW universe with the cosmological constant. Regarding the
apparent horizon (2.3) and from (3.3), one further gets
3 Λ
ρ=
8πRA2 − 8π . (3.12)

From (2.4), (3.4) and (3.12), p is rewritten as

3 Λ ṘA
p=− 2 + 8π + 4πHR3 . (3.13)
8πRA A

Note that the variation rate of the apparent horizon in (3.13) can be replaced into the temperature T from solving
(2.7). Then, from (3.12) and (3.13) combined with (3.11), we easily obtain the thermodynamic equation of state as4
T 1
P = + 2 . (3.14)
2RA 8πRA

For Eq.(3.14), we can also easily rewrite it in physical units according to the dimensional analysis
kB T ~c
P= + 2 , (3.15)
2`2p RA 8π`2p RA

where the physical pressure P and temperature T in physical units are related to P and T as
~c ~c
P= P, T= T, (3.16)
`2p kB

and the square of the Planck length is `2p = ~G/c3 , while kB is the Boltzmann constant. In order to have an insightful
view of the equation of state (3.15), some isothermal curves from it are drawn in the P -RA plane, see the following
Fig.1.

1.2 × 1021
T=4.5K
1.0 × 1021
T=2.725K
8.0 × 1020 T=1.4K
P/Pa

6.0 × 1020 T=0.5K

4.0 × 1020

2.0 × 1020

0
0 2 × 1010 4 × 1010 6 × 1010 8 × 1010 1 × 1011
RA /l.y.

FIG. 1: Isothermal curves of FRW universe in the P -RA phase diagram, which imply no P -V phase transition.

In Fig.1, we plot some numerical results of the pressure P as function of the apparent horizon RA with some fixed
values of T . The values of the temperatures are chosen such that the interesting features can be nicely plotted. Our
choice is therefore for convenience only. From the figure, there is no evidence for the existence of van der Waals-like
(P -V ) phase transition, which can be also rigorously proved in the following. The necessary condition for the existence
of the P -V phase transition [12, 15–17, 19] is
   2 
∂P ∂ P
= = 0, (3.17)
∂V T ∂V 2 T

4 Note that, the cosmological constant Λ and the curvature parameter k do not explicitly appear in the equation of state. In fact, Λ and k
affect the values of P , T and RA but do not affect the relation among these values.
 7

or equivalently in this paper

∂2P
   
∂P
= 2 = 0, (3.18)
∂RA T ∂RA T

and one can easily check that this kind of solution does not exist. Furthermore, from the first equation in (3.18), we get
∂P 1 + 2πRA T
=− 3 < 0, (3.19)
∂RA T 4πRA
which implies that the system is thermodynamically stable.
The stability of the thermodynamic system can also be understood by investigating the specific heat capacity at
constant pressure CP , which is positive for a stable system and negative for a unstable system. By using the entropy
in (2.15) and (3.14), we obtain the specific heat capacity of the FRW universe
2 2
4π 2 RA
3
   
∂H ∂S 2πRA (−1 + 8πRA P) T
CP = =T = 2 = , (3.20)
∂T P ∂T P 1 + 8πRA P 1 + 2πT RA
where H = U + P V is the enthalpy of the system. Clearly one√sees that the sign of the heat capacity CP is always
positive since the temperature should take positive value for 1/ 8πP < RA , implying the FRW universe is thermally
stable, while many black holes have negative heat capacities and thus unstable. The stable FRW universe also provides
a suitable background for the black hole formation, such as the McVittie black hole [57]. The expression of the heat
capacity (3.20) can be also used to conveniently calculate the Joule-Thomson coefficient as shown in the following
section.

IV. JOULE-THOMSON EXPANSION FOR A FRW UNIVERSE

In this section, by using the above thermodynamic equation of state for a FRW universe with the cosmological
constant, we investigate its Joule-Thomson expansion, and obtain the Joule-Thomson coefficient. Furthermore, we will
demonstrate whether the inversion temperature and inversion pressure exist.
The Joule-Thomson expansion is an interesting physical process with important feature that the temperature changes
with pressure while keeping the enthalpy H fixed during this expansion process [34]. The Joule-Thomson coefficient µ
is defined by
 
∂T
µ= . (4.1)
∂P H
The sign of µ is determined by cooling or heating occurred in the thermodynamic system. µ > 0 means that the system
remains cooling, and the temperature of the system decreases. On the contrary, µ < 0 means that the system remains
heating. Therefore, the cooling-heating inversion points lie at µ = 0, and the temperature of the thermodynamic system
at that point is named as inversion temperature Ti . When the temperature of the system is Ti , the corresponding
pressure is considered as the inversion pressure Pi , and consequently the special point (Ti , Pi ) is called the inversion
point. The (4.1) is rewritten as following form [34]
   
1 ∂V
µ= T −V . (4.2)
CP ∂T P
The enthalpy of FRW universe is given by
3
RA (2πRA T − 1) RA 4πRA
H= =− + P. (4.3)
3 2 3
One can see that the enthalpy H > 0 when
r
1 3
RA > or RA > , (4.4)
2πT 8πP
and the enthalpy H < 0 when
r
1 1 3
0 < RA < or √ < RA < . (4.5)
2πT 8πP 8πP
 8

From (4.3), the pressure P can be rewritten as a function of H and RA ,

3(2H + RA )
P (H, RA ) = 3 , (4.6)
8πRA

and then substituting the Eq.(4.6) into (3.14), one writes the temperature as a function of H and RA as follows

3H + RA
T (H, RA ) = 2 . (4.7)
2πRA

By using (4.1) combined with Eqs.(4.6) and (4.7), we obtain the Joule-Thomson coefficient of the FRW universe as a
function of T and RA ,

(∂T /∂RA )H 2RA (RA + 6H) 4RA 1

µ= = = − , (4.8)
(∂P /∂RA )H 3(RA + 3H) 3 3πT
which can also be obtain by using Eqs.(3.14), (3.20) and (4.2). We can see from the above equation, if the value of
enthalpy H is positive (H > 0), suggesting that the FRW universe is always in the cooling stage, i.e., there is no inversion
temperature and inversion pressure. If H is negative (H < 0), there exist both a divergence point and an inversion
point of FRW universe.5 The inversion point corresponds to ä = 0, which derivations and physical interpretations are
written in the Appendix A. Setting µ = 0, and combining with (4.3), we get the inversion temperature is given by
1 1
Ti = =− . (4.9)
4πRA 24πH

Combining with (3.14) and (4.3), we get the inversion pressure

1 1
Pi = 2 = . (4.10)
4πRA 144πH2

From the above two relations, we easily find that the inversion temperature and inversion pressure both exist if the
enthalpy H for a FRW universe is negative. In addition, from (4.9) and (4.10), we also obtain the simple relation
between the inversion temperature and the inversion pressure
r
1 Pi
Ti = . (4.11)
2 π
The Joule-Thomson expansion occurs as an isenthalpic process, and hence it is significant to study the isenthalpic
curves for a thermodynamic system. From Eqs.(4.6), (4.7) and (4.11), we will plot the isenthalpic curves in the Fig.2
for a FRW universe in the T -P plane by fixing the H, and also show the inversion curve.6

5 Note that, in the same way as the internal energy U being dependent on the choice of U0 (explained in Footnote 3), the enthalpy H also
e = U + U0 + P V = H + U0 . However, we can easily prove that the JT
depends on U0 , i.e. we can alternatively define the enthalpy as H
2RA [RA +6(H−U
e 0 )]
expansion coefficient is independent of the choice of U0 , i.e. µ = same as Eq.(4.8). Furthermore, the condition for the
3[RA +3(H−U
e 0 )]
inversion point to exist is also the same, i.e. the condition is H
e − U0 = H < 0. As an additional remark, we can further easily derive that
the condition H < 0 is equivalent to ρ + p > 0, which is just the null energy condition and can be satisfied by most matter fields.
6 In Fig.2, we have plotted isenthalpic curves to exhibit the cooling-heating property, and an inversion curve intersects at their maxima.
Note that fixing the enthalpy H is a necessary condition for cooling-heating, but it does not mean that the evolution of the universe is
isenthalpic. In general, as the universe is dynamical, its enthalpy H, pressure P and temperature T change with time. As long as they
satisfy the relation indicated in (4.11), transition from cooling to heating or from heating to cooling can happen.
 9

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2 ℋ=-0.04

ℋ=-0.05
0.1
ℋ=-0.06

P
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

FIG. 2: The isenthalpic curves for a FRW universe have been plotted with different values of H, while the monotonous black line is the
inversion curve. These isenthalpic curves are separated by the inversion curve into two regions, i.e. the left cooling and right heating regions.

Obviously, these isenthalpic curves intersect with the inversion curve at their maximum points. In addition, these
isenthalpic curves are also separated into two regions by the inversion curve, i.e. the left cooling and right heating
regions. Furthermore, the region surrounded by isenthalpic curve and P axis shrinks when H decreases or becomes
more negative.

V. CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION

In view of limitations of application of event horizon in realistic astrophysics, black hole thermodynamics associated
to apparent horizon is developed. This point is especially significant for the Universe, since under several situations
the event horizon does not exist. The unified first law of thermodynamics concentrates on apparent horizon, and thus
can be naturally applied to cosmology.
By using the unified first law we set up the equation of state of the FRW universe. The thermodynamic pressure P
is determined by the unified first law, in fact the field equation, directly. Different from the AdS black holes, we find
that the proper thermodynamic pressure P for a FRW universe involves the work density W of the matter field and
the cosmological constant Λ. Theoretically, this definition of P is the conjugate quantity of thermodynamic volume.
As a comparison, the widely used definition thermodynamic pressure in investigations in extended space of black holes
is only an analogy in dynamics of cosmology. A rigorous derivation from fundamental laws is deficient. Furthermore,
we find the specific capacity of the FRW universe is positive. This result is remarkable, since it implies that the
FRW universe is stable. Contrarily, the instability of black hole against thermodynamics perturbations is an eminent
progress in black hole thermodynamics, since the specific capacity of a black hole is negative.
After careful calculations we formulate the thermodynamic pressure as a function of apparent horizon and temperature
P = P (RA , T ), and apply it to the studies of Joule-Thomson expansion for a FRW universe. We demonstrate that the
FRW universe has an inversion temperature if its enthalpy is negative, and clearly show the cooling and heating phase
in a plot.
Despite the findings in this paper, there are still many open questions. A natural question is whether our definition
of the thermodynamic pressure can be used in other spacetime besides the FRW universe, e.g. black holes immersed in
perfect fluids. From the viewpoint of the new definition of P , there may be some underlying physical interpretations,
how to further understand the profound physical implication between P and PΛ will be an intriguing work. Another
interesting question is whether the cooling-heating property can be found for the FRW universe in modified theories of
gravity and/or filled with other matter fields instead of perfect fluid, and the results may provide new points to test
the modified theories of gravity. We are also very curious about whether the inversion temperature can be found by
cosmological observations, which will be a challenging and meaningful task. These questions are studied in the future.
Interestingly, as discussed in Appendix A, we have investigated the constraint on the perfect fluid from T ≥ 0 and the
physical meaning of the inversion point. We have obtained that at the inversion point µ = 0 is equivalent to ä = 0,
corresponding to the acceleration/deceleration transition of the universe, which to our knowledge is discovered for the
first time in standard cosmology.
 10

VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

We would like to thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments and Profs. Li-Ming Cao, Shao-Wen Wei, Xiao-Mei
Kuang, Yen Chin Ong, Yihao Yin and Theodore A. Jacobson for useful discussions. This work is supported by National
Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under grant Nos. 12175105, 12147175, 12235019,12174194, 11575083,
Top-notch Academic Programs Project of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (TAPP). W.-L. Y acknowledges the
startup fund of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics under grant No. 1008-YAH20006 and stable
support for basic institute research (Grant No. 190101). H.Z. is supported by Shandong Province Natural Science
Foundation under grant No. ZR201709220395, and the National Key Research and Development Program of China
(No. 2020YFC2201400).

Appendix A: Constraints from κ < 0 and µ = 0

In this appendix, we first give the constraint on the perfect fluid from κ < 0, and then give the constraint on the
scale factor from the inversion point (µ = 0).

From the expression (2.6) of the surface gravity κ, one can see that κ < 0 is equivalent to

ṘA
1− > 0, (A1)
2HRA
which together with (3.13) results to
Λ 1
p− − 2 < 0, (A2)
8π 8πRA
and by using (3.12), we finally get
Λ
ρ − 3p > − . (A3)
2π
For the cosmological horizon of the McVittie spacetime, κ < 0 is equivalent to [57]
m
ρ − 3p > 2 , (A4)
2πRAc
where m is the mass parameter of the central black hole, RAc is the larger apparent horizon (cosmological horizon) of
the McVittie spacetime, and the cosmological constant is set to zero in that paper. If one sets the mass parameter of
the McVittie spacetime to be zero and recovers the cosmological constant, one will get a spatially flat FRW universe
with a cosmological constant, and condition (A4) can reduce to condition (A3), i.e. the conditions for κ < 0 in the two
papers are consistent.

For the H < 0 case, the existence of an inversion point (a maximum in the T -P diagram) in the JT expansion is
very interesting, and its physical meaning needs to be further excavated. We find that at this point, the acceleration of
the FRW universe is zero, i.e. ä = 0, which derivations are simple and shown below.
Equate the Hawking temperature (2.7) and the inversion temperature (4.9), one can get

ṘA − HRA = 0 , (A5)

which together with (2.4) results to the following relation
 
2 k
RA Ḣ − 2 + 1 = 0 , (A6)
a
and by using (2.3), we finally get

Ḣ + H 2 = 0 , (A7)
i.e.
ä = 0 . (A8)
 11

This result shows that the second-derivative of the scale factor of the FRW universe is zero at the inversion point,
which means that its signs are different for T < Ti and T > Ti , i.e. there is a transition from acceleration ä > 0 to
deceleration ä < 0 or from deceleration ä < 0 to acceleration ä > 0.
The above condition (A7) or (A8) also corresponds to a constraint on the perfect fluid, which is still obtained by
using equations (2.3), (2.4), (3.12) and (3.13), and the constraint is

Λ
ρ + 3p = . (A9)
4π
When the temperature is larger than the inversion temperature, the perfect fluid satisfies ρ + 3p < Λ/(4π), and when
the temperature is smaller than the inversion temperature, the perfect fluid satisfies ρ + 3p > Λ/(4π), so one can also
say that there is a phase transition of different fluids at the inversion point.
The inversion point signals a new type of phase transition that is discovered for the first time to our knowledge, and
we are very interested whether it can be matched with observations of our real universe.

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