Gravitational partition function under volume constraints

Abstract

The Euclidean action provides a bridge between gravitational thermodynamics and the partition function. In this work, we further investigate the gravitational partition function under a fixed-volume constraint, generalizing the fixed-volume on-shell geometry in the massless case. Moving beyond this massless configuration, we construct solutions with nonvanishing mass functions, which give rise to a new class of volume-constrained Euclidean geometries (VCEGs). These geometries possess both a boundary and a horizon. However, closer inspection indicates that the boundary is not intrinsic, but rather artificially introduced and can be extended, leading to the extended volume-constrained Euclidean geometries (ECVEGs). The ECVEGs contain two horizons, each generically associated with a conical singularity. Their Euclidean action is given by one quarter of the sum of the areas of the two horizons. In general, the conical singularities at the two horizons cannot be simultaneously eliminated, except at a critical mass $m = m^*$, which defines the critical ECVEG. Configurations with unavoidable conical singularities are naturally interpreted as constrained gravitational instantons. An analysis of their contributions to the partition function, together with their topological properties, reveals a close analogy between the ECVEGs and the Euclidean Schwarzschild--de Sitter static patch. This suggests that the volume constraint effectively plays a role analogous to that of a cosmological constant in semiclassical quantum gravity.