Near-horizon Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, dimensional reduction, and black hole entropy

In an earlier short paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 101301 (2018)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.120.101301], I argued that the horizon-preserving diffeomorphisms of a generic black hole are enhanced to a larger three-dimensional Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, which is powerful enough to determine the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Here, I provide details and extensions of that argument, including a loosening of horizon boundary conditions and a more thorough treatment of dimensional reduction and meaning of a "near-horizon symmetry.

A Note on Black Hole Entropy in Loop Quantum Gravity

Several recent results have hinted that black hole thermodynamics in loop quantum gravity simplifies if one chooses an imaginary Barbero-Immirzi parameter $\gamma=i$. This suggests a connection with $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{C})$ or $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})$ conformal field theories at the "boundaries" formed by spin network edges intersecting the horizon. I present a bit of background regarding the relevant conformal field theories, along with some speculations about how they might be used to count black hole states. I show, in particular, that a set of unproven but plausible assumptions can lead to a boundary conformal field theory whose density of states matches the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy.Comment: v2: added references; v3: slight addition to discussion of 3d gravity; v4: more references, typos fixe

Four-Dimensional Entropy from Three-Dimensional Gravity

At the horizon of a black hole, the action of (3+1)-dimensional loop quantum gravity acquires a boundary term that is formally identical to an action for three-dimensional gravity. I show how to use this correspondence to obtain the entropy of the (3+1)-dimensional black hole from well-understood conformal field theory computations of the entropy in (2+1)-dimensional de Sitter space.Comment: 8 pages; v2: more references, typos fixed, minor rewording; v3: some clearer explanations in response to referees, more reference

Kinetic Energy and the Equivalence Principle

According to the general theory of relativity, kinetic energy contributes to gravitational mass. Surprisingly, the observational evidence for this prediction does not seem to be discussed in the literature. I reanalyze existing experimental data to test the equivalence principle for the kinetic energy of atomic electrons, and show that fairly strong limits on possible violations can be obtained. I discuss the relationship of this result to the occasional claim that ``light falls with twice the acceleration of ordinary matter.''Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX; pedagogical paper sent to archive at students' reques

Statistical Mechanics and Black Hole Entropy

I review a new (and still tentative) approach to black hole thermodynamics that seeks to explain black hole entropy in terms of microscopic quantum gravitational boundary states induced on the black hole horizon.Comment: 10 pages, one figure in separate (uuencoded, compressed) tar file; factor of 2 corrected in eqn. (2.8