Extended Thermodynamics and Renyi Entropy Beyond Fixed Central Charge

Abstract

An outstanding problem in the framework of conformal thermodynamics concerns the interpretation of variations in the central charge $C$. In this paper, we construct a novel central-charge R\'enyi entropy via the Casini-Huerta-Myers (CHM) map by considering thermal CFTs on a hyperbolic cylinder within a fixed charge, field theory volume and central charge potential $(\tilde{Q},\mathcal{V},\mu_C)$ grand canonical ensemble. We demonstrate that the resulting entropy satisfies all four fundamental R\'enyi entropy inequalities throughout the admissible range of $\mu_C$, establishing its consistency as a genuine R\'enyi measure. Physically, this novel measure extends conventional R\'enyi entropy by capturing the degree of entanglement across a statistical ensemble of holographic CFTs with fluctuating degrees of freedom. Furthermore, our conformal thermodynamic analysis of near-extremal configurations reveals that residual entropy arises from the central charge sector rather than thermal excitations. The mass gap that separates the extremal state and the first thermal excitation introduces a characteristic temperature scale $\tilde{T}_*$, which translates via the CHM map into a distinguished characteristic R\'enyi index $n_*$. Crucially, we propose that $n_*$ separates the theory space into two qualitatively distinct statistical regimes: a dominant-theory regime ($n > n_*$) governed by the most probable CFT realizations, and a multi-theory regime ($n < n_*$) where a broader spectrum of fluctuating theories and higher-energy modular excitations becomes increasingly relevant.