A brief commentary on black hole entropy

Abstract

It is commonplace, in the literature, to find that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy has been endowed with having an explicit statistical interpretation. In the following essay, we discuss why such a viewpoint warrants a certain degree of caution.

4 pages, Revtex; (v2) some mistaken terminology is corrected

References in corpus (6)

• Symmetry and entropy of black hole horizons
• Role of Horizons in Semiclassical Gravity: Entropy and the Area Spectrum
• Mass Spectrum for Black Holes in Generic 2-D Dilaton Gravity
• On the counting of black hole states in loop quantum gravity
• A few words on Entropy, Thermodynamics, and Horizons
• Entropy of Spacelike Two-Surfaces of Spacetime

Cited by in corpus (10)

• When conceptual worlds collide: The GUP and the BH entropy
• Entropy/Area spectra of the charged black hole from quasinormal modes
• Quantization of the black hole area as quantization of the angular momentum component
• Area spectrum of the D-dimensional de Sitter spacetime
• On the "Universal" Quantum Area Spectrum
• The quantum of area $\Delta A=8\pi l_P^2$ and a statistical interpretation of black hole entropy
• Spectroscopy of Rotating Linear Dilaton Black Holes From Boxed Quasinormal Modes
• Yet More on the Universal Quantum Area Spectrum
• The entropy and mean separation between energy levels of black hole
• On black hole spectroscopy via quantum tunneling