Holographic Phase Transition Probed by Nonlocal Observables

From the viewpoint of holography, the phase structure of a 5-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black hole is probed by the two-point correlation function, Wilson loop, and entanglement entropy. As the case of thermal entropy, we find for all the probes that the black hole undergoes a Hawking-Page phase transition, a first-order phase transition, and a second-order phase transition successively before it reaches a stable phase. In addition, for these probes, we find that the equal area law for the first-order phase transition is valid always and the critical exponent of the heat capacity for the second-order phase transition coincides with that of the mean field theory regardless of the size of the boundary region.