The Statistical Mechanics of Black Hole Thermodynamics
| dc.creator | Sorkin, Rafael D. | |
| dc.date | 1997-05-05 | |
| dc.date | 1997-12-15 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T09:03:03Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T09:03:03Z | |
| dc.description | 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 is the microscopic origin of the entropy, and why does the law of entropy increase continue to hold when the horizon entropy is included? After a review of some of the difficulties in answering these questions, I propose an explanation of the law of entropy increase which comes near to a proof in the context of the ``semi-classical'' approximation, and which also provides a proof in full quantum gravity under the assumption that the latter fulfills certain natural expectations, like the existence of a conserved energy definable at infinity. This explanation seems to require a fundamental spacetime discreteness in order for the entropy to be consistently finite, and I recall briefly some of the ideas for what the discreteness might be. If such ideas are right, then our knowledge of the horizon entropy will allow us to ``count the atoms of spacetime''. | |
| dc.description | 21 pages, plainTeX, no figures. (Only nontrivial change from original version is rewriting to improve clarity.) | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9705006 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9705006 | |
| dc.identifier | in Black Holes and Relativistic Stars, edited by R.M. Wald (University of Chicago Press, 1998) | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/148864 | |
| dc.subject | General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology | |
| dc.subject | High Energy Physics - Theory | |
| dc.title | The Statistical Mechanics of Black Hole Thermodynamics | |
| dc.type | text |