Horizons, Constraints, and Black Hole Entropy

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 from the behavior of the underlying symmetries of the classical theory. To impose the condition that a black hole be present, we must partially break the classical symmetries of general relativity, and the resulting Goldstone boson-like degrees of freedom may account for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. In particular, I demonstrate that the imposition of a ``stretched horizon'' constraint modifies the algebra of symmetries at the horizon, allowing the use of standard conformal field theory techniques to determine the asymptotic density of states. The results reproduce the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy without any need for detailed assumptions about the microscopic theory.Comment: 16 pages, talk given at the "Peyresq Physics 10 Meeting on Micro and Macro structures of spacetime

Black Hole Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics

We have known for more than thirty years that black holes behave as thermodynamic systems, radiating as black bodies with characteristic temperatures and entropies. This behavior is not only interesting in its own right; it could also, through a statistical mechanical description, cast light on some of the deep problems of quantizing gravity. In these lectures, I review what we currently know about black hole thermodynamics and statistical mechanics, suggest a rather speculative "universal" characterization of the underlying states, and describe some key open questions.Comment: 35 pages, Springer macros; for the Proceedings of the 4th Aegean Summer School on Black Hole

Analytical studies of Hawking radiation and quasinormal modes in rotating linear dilatonic black hole

The rotating linear dilatonic black hole is an asymptotically non-flat solution to Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton-Axion gravity theory due to the existence of non-trivial matter fields. We have analytically studied the wave equation of scalar field in this background and shown that the radial wave equation can be solved in terms of hypergeometric function. By determining the ingoing and the outgoing fluxes at the asymptotic infinity, we have found the analytical expressions for reflection coefficient and greybody factor for certain scalar modes. In the high frequency regime, we obtain the Hawking temperature by comparing the blackbody spectrum with the radiation spectrum resulting from reflection coefficient. It is shown that the Hawking temperature, which depends only on the linear dilatonic background parameter, does not agree with the temperature calculated from surface gravity. At last, the quasinormal modes of scalar field perturbation are presented, which shows that the rotating linear dilationic black hole is unstable for certain modes apart from the superradiant modes.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures Comments are welcom

The dream machine Launch of the UK National Lottery

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