Related papers: Statistical Thermodynamics of a Black Hole in Term…
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…
The standard (Euclidean) action principle for the gravitational field implies that for spacetimes with black hole topology, the opening angle at the horizon and the horizon area are canonical conjugates. It is shown that the opening angle…
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…
In this note we consider a stringy description of black hole horizon. We start with a nonlinear sigma model defined on a two dimensional Euclidean surface with background Rindler metric. By solving the field equations, we show that to the…
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…
It is argued that degrees of freedom responsible for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of a black hole in induced gravity are described by two dimensional quantum field theory defined on the bifurcation surface of the horizon. This result is…
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…
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…
Thermodynamics of scalar fields is investigated in three dimensional black hole backgrounds in two approaches. One is mode expansion and direct computation of the partition sum, and the other is the Euclidean path integral approach. We…
A black hole can be regarded as a thermodynamic system described by a grand canonical ensemble. In this paper, we study the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of higher-dimensional rotating black holes using the Euclidean path-integral method of…
The Bekenstein-Hawking formula relates the black hole entropy and horizon area. Semiclassical entropy computations have relied on an action principle that fixes a gauge dependent and classically unobservable boundary three-geometry and…
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…
Black hole entropy appears to be ``universal''--many independent calculations, involving models with very different microscopic degrees of freedom, all yield the same density of states. I discuss the proposal that this universality comes…
The thermodynamics of black holes is shown to be directly induced by their near-horizon conformal invariance. This behavior is exhibited using a scalar field as a probe of the black hole gravitational background, for a general class of…
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…
We assume the validity of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, as given in terms of the horizon area of the Bardeen regular black hole, and consider it as the fundamental thermodynamic equation. We derive and investigate the behavior of the main…
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,…
We introduce the concept of black shell, consisting on a massive thin spherical shell contracting toward its gravitational radius from the point of view of an external observer far from the shell, in order to effectively model the…
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…
This paper discusses the thermodynamics of a black hole with respect to Hawking radiation and the entropy. We look at a unified picture of black hole entropy and curvature and how this can lead to the usual black hole luminosity due to…