Related papers: Statistical Mechanics and Black Hole Entropy
We review some recent advances in black hole thermodynamics, including statistical mechanical origins of black hole entropy and its leading order corrections, from the viewpoints of various quantum gravity theories. We then examine the…
Although we know that black holes are characterized by a temperature and an entropy, we do not yet have a satisfactory microscopic ``statistical mechanical'' explanation for black hole thermodynamics. I describe a new approach that…
We review recent progress in understanding certain aspects of the thermodynamics of black holes and other horizons. Our discussion centers on various ``entropy bounds'' which have been proposed in the literature and on the current…
In this review we describe statistical mechanics of quantum systems in the presence of a Killing horizon and compare statistical-mechanical and one-loop contributions to black hole entropy. Studying these questions was motivated by attempts…
Although we have convincing evidence that a black hole bears an entropy proportional to its surface (horizon) area, the ``statistical mechanical'' explanation of this entropy remains unknown. Two basic questions in this connection are: what…
A coarse-grained version of the effective action is used to study the thermodynamics of black holes, interpolating from largest to smallest masses. The physical parameter of the black hole are linked to the running couplings by…
We have known for more than thirty years that black holes behave as thermodynamic systems, radiating as black bodies with characteristic temperatures and entropies. This behavior is not only interesting in its own right; it could also,…
We discuss the connection between different entropies introduced for black hole. It is demonstrated on the two-dimensional example that the (quantum) thermodynamical entropy of a hole coincides (including UV-finite terms) with its…
We review the present status of black hole thermodynamics. Our review includes discussion of classical black hole thermodynamics, Hawking radiation from black holes, the generalized second law, and the issue of entropy bounds. A brief…
We discuss and compare different definitions of the entropy of a black hole. In particular we show that the thermodynamical entropy defined by the response of the free energy of a black hole to the change of temperature does not coincide…
Based on a recent proposal for the volume inside a black hole, we calculate the entropy associated with this volume and show that such entropy is proportional to the surface area of the black hole. Together with the consideration of black…
In this review we try to give a pedagogical introduction to the recent progress in the resolution of old problems of black hole thermodynamics within superstring theory. We start with a brief description of classical black hole dynamics.…
To explain black hole thermodynamics in quantum gravity, one must introduce constraints to ensure that a black hole is actually present. I show that for a large class of black holes, such ``horizon constraints'' allow the use of conformal…
Black holes are thermodynamic objects, but despite recent progress, the ultimate statistical mechanical origin of black hole temperature and entropy remains mysterious. Here I summarize an approach in which the entropy is viewed as arising…
This is an introductory, up-to-date review of the essentials of black hole thermodynamics. The main topics surveyed are: (i) the four laws of thermodynamics as applied to a black hole horizon, and the current status of their proofs; (ii)…
I argue that black hole entropy counts only those states of a black hole that can influence the outside, and attempt (with only partial success) to defend this claim against various objections, all but one coming from string theory.…
The comparison of geometrical properties of black holes with classical thermodynamic variables reveals surprising parallels between the laws of black hole mechanics and the laws of thermodynamics. Since Hawking's discovery that black holes…
Black holes behave as thermodynamic systems, and a central task of any quantum theory of gravity is to explain these thermal properties. A statistical mechanical description of black hole entropy once seemed remote, but today we suffer an…
It is a common belief now that the explanation of the microscopic origin of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes should be available in quantum gravity theory, whatever this theory will finally look like. Calculations of the…
Black holes exist all over our Universe, possessing a very wide range of masses. At the moment, they serve as a probe to test general relativity at astrophysical scales, but in the future they may also give us information about gravity at…