Thermodynamic properties of modified gravity theories

Abstract

We review thermodynamic properties of modified gravity theories such as $F(R)$ gravity and $f(T)$ gravity, where $R$ is the scalar curvature and $T$ is the torsion scalar in teleparallelism. In particular, we explore the equivalence between the equations of motion for modified gravity theories and the Clausius relation in thermodynamics. In addition, thermodynamics of the cosmological apparent horizon is investigated in $f(T)$ gravity. We show both equilibrium and non-equilibrium descriptions of thermodynamics. It is demonstrated that the second law of thermodynamics in the universe can be met when the temperature of the outside of the apparent horizon is equivalent to that of the inside of it.

27 pages, no figure, version accepted for publication in International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics