Related papers: Bounds on Black Hole Entropy in Unitary Theories o…
Relying solely on unitarity and the consistency with large-distance black hole physics, we derive model-independent properties of the microscopic black holes and of short-distance gravity in theories with N particle species. In this class…
We study the validity of Bekenstein's entropy bound for a charged black hole in the context of nonlinear electrodynamics. Bekenstein's inequalities are commonly understood as universal relations between the entropy, the charge, the…
In theories with a large number N of particle species, black hole physics imposes an upper bound on the mass of the species equal to M_{Planck}/\sqrt{N}. This bound suggests a novel solution to the hierarchy problem in which there are N…
The gravity/gauge theory duality has provided us a way of studying QCD at short distances from straightforward calculations in classical general relativity. Among numerous results obtained so far, one of the most striking is the…
Entropy of all systems that we understand well is proportional to their volumes except for black holes given by their horizon area. This makes the microstates of any quantum theory of gravity drastically different from the ordinary matter.…
In any quantum theory of gravity we do expect corrections to Einstein gravity to occur. Yet, at fundamental level, it is not apparent what the most relevant corrections are. We argue that the generic curvature square corrections present in…
In this paper the entropy of an eternal Schwarzschild black hole is studied in the limit of infinite black hole mass. The problem is addressed from the point of view of both canonical quantum gravity and superstring theory. The entropy per…
A key test of any quantum theory of gravity is its ability to reproduce the known thermodynamic properties of black holes. A statistical mechanical description of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy once seemed remote, but today we suffer an…
One quantum characterization of a black hole motivated by (local) holography and thermodynamics is that it maximizes thermodynamic entropy for a given surface area. In the context of quantum gravity, this could be more fundamental than the…
We present a coherent picture of the quantum mechanics of black holes. The picture does not require the introduction of any drastically new physical effect beyond what is already known; it arises mostly from synthesizing and…
Einstein's general theory of relativity poses many problems to the quantum theory of point particle fields. Among them is the fate of a massive point particle. Since its rest mass exists entirely within its Schwarzschild radius, in the…
To derive black hole thermodynamics in any quantum theory of gravity, one must introduce constraints that ensure that a black hole is actually present. For a large class of black holes, the imposition of such ``horizon constraints'' allows…
The quasi-local notion of an isolated horizon is employed to study the entropy of black holes without any particular symmetry in loop quantum gravity. The idea of characterizing the shape of a horizon by a sequence of local areas is…
Horndeski gravities are theories of gravity coupled to a scalar field, in which the action contains an additional non-minimal quadratic coupling of the scalar, through its first derivative, to the Einstein tensor or the analogous…
Restricted to a black hole horizon, the ``gauge'' algebra of surface deformations in general relativity contains a Virasoro subalgebra with a calculable central charge. The fields in any quantum theory of gravity must transform accordingly,…
Up to now, Einstein's general theory of relativity has passed all experimental tests. But yet we know that it is not a fundamental theory and that it is incompatible with quantum theory. While several extended and improved gravitational…
In gravitational thermodynamics, the entropy of a black hole with distinct surface gravities can be evaluated in a microcanonical ensemble. At the $WKB$ level, the entropy becomes the negative of the Euclidean action of the constrained…
The black hole entropy has been observed to generically turn negative at exponentially low temperatures $T\sim e^{-S_0}$ in the extremal Bekenstein-Hawking entropy $S_0$, a seeming pathology often attributed to missing non-perturbative…
To ask a question about a black hole in quantum gravity, one must restrict initial or boundary data to ensure that a black hole is actually present. For two-dimensional dilaton gravity, and probably a much wider class of theories, I show…
We rederive the universal bound on entropy with the help of black holes while allowing for Unruh--Wald buoyancy. We consider a box full of entropy lowered towards and then dropped into a Reissner--Nordstr\"om black hole in equilibrium with…