The Statistical Mechanics of Horizons and Black Hole Thermodynamics

Abstract

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 attributes the thermodynamic properties to ``would-be gauge'' degrees of freedom that become dynamical on the horizon. For the (2+1)-dimensional black hole, this approach gives the correct entropy. (Talk given at the Pacific Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Seoul, February 1996.)

11 pages, LaTeX

References in corpus (6)

• Gravitational-Radiation Damping of Compact Binary Systems to Second Post-Newtonian order
• Gravitational waveforms from inspiralling compact binaries to second-post-Newtonian order
• Energy losses by gravitational radiation in inspiralling compact binaries to five halves post-Newtonian order
• Statistical Mechanics and Black Hole Entropy
• Edge States in Canonical Gravity
• The Symplectic Structure of General Relativity in the Double-Null (2+2) Formalism

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