On the value of the Immirzi parameter and the horizon entropy

In Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) the quantisation of General Relativity leads to precise predictions for the eigenvalues of geometrical observables like volume and area, up to the value of the only free parameter of the theory, the Barbero-Immirzi (BI) parameter. With the help of the eigenvalues equation for the area operator, LQG successfully derives the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of large black holes with isolated horizons, fixing at this limit the BI parameter as $\gamma \approx 0.274$. In the present paper we show some evidence that a black hole with angular momentum $\hbar$ and Planck mass is an eigenstate of the area operator provided that $\gamma = \sqrt{3}/6 \approx 1.05 \times 0.274$. As the black hole is extremal, there is no Hawking radiation and the horizon is isolated. We also suggest that such a black hole can be formed in the head-on scattering of two parallel Standard Model neutrinos in the mass state $m_2$ (assuming $m_1 = 0$). Furthermore, we use the obtained BI parameter to numerically compute the entropy of isolated horizons with areas ranging up to $250\,l_P^2$, by counting the number of micro-states associated to a given area. The resulting entropy has a leading term ${\cal S} \approx 0.25\, {\cal A}$, in agreement to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. As the identification of the above eigenstate rests on the matching between classical areas and quantum area eigenvalues, we also present, on the basis of an effective quantum model for the Schwarzschild black hole recently proposed by Ashtekar, Olmedo and Singh, an expression for the quantum corrected area of isolated horizons, valid for any black hole mass. Quantum corrections are shown to be negligible for a Planck mass black hole, of order $10^{-3}$ relative to the classical area.