Quantum States of Black Holes
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
2008-02-03 v3 Astrophysics
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
I review the recent progress in providing a statistical foundation for black hole thermodynamics. In the context of string theory, one can now identify and count quantum states associated with black holes. One can also compute the analog of Hawking radiation (in a certain low energy regime) in a manifestly unitary way. Both extremal and nonextremal black holes are considered, including the Schwarzschild solution. Some implications of conjectured non-perturbative string ``duality transformations'' for the description of black hole states are also discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9704072,
title = {Quantum States of Black Holes},
author = {Gary T. Horowitz},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9704072},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
33 pages, Latex, a few clarifying comments added