Thermodynamics and phase transition of a Gauss-Bonnet black hole in a cavity.

Considering a canonical ensemble, in which the temperature and charge on a wall of the cavity are fixed, we investigate the thermodynamics of a D-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet black hole in a finite spherical cavity. Moreover, we show that the first law of thermodynamics is still satisfied. We then discuss the phase structure and transition in both five and six dimensions. Specifically, we show that there always exist two regions in the parameter space. In one region, the system possesses one single phase. However, in the other region three phases could coexist and a van der Waals-like phase transition occurs. Finally, we find that there is a fairly close resemblance between the thermodynamic properties and phase structure of a Gauss-Bonnet-Maxwell black hole in a cavity and those in anti-de Sitter space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]