York's Cavity Formalism and Quantum Modified Thermodynamics of (2+1)D Black Holes

Abstract: We investigate the thermodynamic behavior of $(2+1)$ dimensional BTZ black holes using York's cavity formalism, in which the black hole is enclosed within a finite-radius boundary held at a fixed temperature. This canonical ensemble construction enables the precise derivation of thermodynamic quantities such as temperature, energy, entropy, pressure, and heat capacity via the integral Euclidean path approach. Extending this analysis, we incorporate quantum corrections through Barrow entropy, a modified entropy law motivated by possible quantum-gravitational effects. The Barrow entropy is given by $S_B = (A_+/4)^{1+\Delta}$, where $\Delta \in [0,1]$ represents the degree of fractalization of the horizon. For $\Delta > 0$, we derive the corresponding generalized free energy $F_B$, which reveals that the thermodynamic phase structure changes with increasing $\Delta$.The modified heat capacity of Barrow $C_B$ is also computed, which decreases with larger $\Delta$, indicating suppressed thermal stability. Moreover, we study the influence of quantum effects on the thermal response, by calculating the corrected Joule Thomson coefficient $\mu_B$ . We identify a well defined range $r_+ \leq r \leq 1.154\,r_+$ within which a stable black hole configuration can spontaneously nucleate from a background of hot flat space. Together, our results highlight York's cavity method as a robust tool to investigate black hole thermodynamics in lower dimensional gravity and show that Barrow's entropy introduces physically significant corrections that could signal the influence of quantum gravity near the horizon.