Iyer-Wald ambiguities and gauge covariance of Entropy current in Higher derivative theories of gravity

Abstract: In [arXiv:2105.06455, arXiv:2206.04538], the authors have been able to argue for an ultra-local version of the second law of black hole mechanics, for arbitrary diffeomorphism invariant theories of gravity non-minimally coupled to matter fields, by constructing an entropy current on the dynamical horizon with manifestly positive divergence. This has been achieved by working in the horizon-adapted coordinate system. In this work, we show that the local entropy production through the divergence of the entropy current is covariant under affine reparametrizations that leave the gauge of horizon-adapted coordinates invariant. We explicitly derive a formula for how the entropy current transforms under such coordinate transformations. This extends the analysis of [arXiv:2204.08447] for arbitrary diffeomorphism invariant theories of gravity non-minimally coupled to matter fields. We also study the Iyer-Wald ambiguities of the covariant phase formalism that generically plague the components of the entropy current.