Finite-cutoff holography and quasilocal thermodynamics of BTZ black holes in a cavity

Abstract

We show that the BTZ black hole in a finite radial cavity realizes a closed finite-cutoff thermodynamic system whose renormalized Brown-York stress tensor is simultaneously the quasilocal stress tensor of the cavity and the stress tensor of the cutoff dual theory. The central result is the exact finite-radius Hamilton-Jacobi equation for the wall stress tensor and its realization by the static and rotating BTZ families in local wall variables. In the homogeneous wall frame this equation becomes a nonlinear equation of state, with the corresponding gravitational deformation parameter fixed entirely by the bulk couplings. We use this structure to formulate the rotating cavity directly in terms of wall-measured grand-canonical data, derive the corresponding quasilocal first law and radial flow equations, and identify the finite-size Hawking-Page transition. The same wall dictionary gives an exact finite-cutoff spectral map and a deformed Cardy density of states in quasilocal energy variables. The cavity radius therefore plays a controlled double role: it is the physical size of the Brown-York thermodynamic system and the cutoff scale of the dual finite-radius theory.