Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 90
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5570-1

Letter

Lovelock black holes surrounded by quintessence

¹ Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X54001, Durban, 4000, South Africa
² Centre for Theoretical Physics, Multidisciplinary Centre for Advanced Research and Studies (MCARS), Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, 110025, India

^* e-mail: sgghosh@gmail.com
^** e-mail: sghosh2@jmi.ac.in

Received: 24 September 2017
Accepted: 17 January 2018
Published online: 31 January 2018

Abstract

Lovelock gravity consisting of the dimensionally continued Euler densities is a natural generalization of general relativity to higher dimensions such that equations of motion are still second order, and the theory is free of ghosts. A scalar field with a positive potential that yields an accelerating universe has been termed quintessence. We present exact black hole solutions in D-dimensional Lovelock gravity surrounded by quintessence matter and also perform a detailed thermodynamical study. Further, we find that the mass, entropy and temperature of the black hole are corrected due to the quintessence background. In particular, we find that a phase transition occurs with a divergence of the heat capacity at the critical horizon radius, and that specific heat becomes positive for allowing the black hole to become thermodynamically stable.