Thermodynamical and dynamical equilibrium of a self-gravitating uncharged thin shell

Abstract: The dynamical stability of massive thin shells with a given equation of state (EOS) is here compared (both for the barotropic and non-barotropic case) with the results coming from thermodynamical stability. Our results show that the restrictions in the parameter space of equilibrium configurations of the shell following from thermodynamical stability are much more stringent that those obtained from dynamical stability. As a byproduct, we furnish evidence that the link between the maximum mass along a sequence of equilibrium configurations and the onset of dynamical stability is valid for EOS of the type $P=P(\sigma, R)$.