English

Corrections to Bekenstein-Hawking entropy --- Quantum or not-so quantum?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2011-01-04 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory Quantum Physics

Abstract

Hawking radiation and Bekenstein--Hawking entropy are the two robust predictions of a yet unknown quantum theory of gravity. Any theory which fails to reproduce these predictions is certainly incorrect. While several approaches lead to Bekenstein--Hawking entropy, they all lead to different sub-leading corrections. In this article, we ask a question that is relevant for any approach: Using simple techniques, can we know whether an approach contains quantum or semi-classical degrees of freedom? Using naive dimensional analysis, we show that the semi-classical black-hole entropy has the same dimensional dependence as the gravity action. Among others, this provides a plausible explanation for the connection between Einstein's equations and thermodynamic equation of state, and that the quantum corrections should have a different scaling behavior.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1101.0030,
  title  = {Corrections to Bekenstein-Hawking entropy --- Quantum or not-so quantum?},
  author = {S. Shankaranarayanan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1101.0030},
  year   = {2011}
}

Comments

10 pages; Article for the Special Issue "Entropy in Quantum Gravity" in the Journal Entropy