A note on black hole entropy, area spectrum, and evaporation

We argue that a process where a fuzzy space splits in two others can be used to explain the origin of the black hole entropy, and why a "generalized second law of thermodynamics" appears to hold in the presence of black holes. We reach the Bekenstein-Hawking formula from the count of the microstates of a black hole modeled by a fuzzy space. In this approach, a discrete area spectrum for the black hole, which becomes increasingly spaced as the black hole approaches the Planck scale, is obtained. We show that, as a consequence of this, the black hole radiation becomes less and less entropic as the black hole evaporates, in a way that some information about its initial state could be recovered.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Magnetic monopole and string excitations in a two-dimensional spin ice

We study the magnetic excitations of a square lattice spin-ice recently produced in an artificial form, as an array of nanoscale magnets. Our analysis, based upon the dipolar interaction between the nanomagnetic islands, correctly reproduces the ground-state observed experimentally. In addition, we find magnetic monopole-like excitations effectively interacting by means of the usual Coulombic plus a linear confining potential, the latter being related to a string-like excitation binding the monopoles pairs, what indicates that the fractionalization of magnetic dipoles may not be so easy in two dimensions. These findings contrast this material with the three-dimensional analogue, where such monopoles experience only the Coulombic interaction. We discuss, however, two entropic effects that affect the monopole interactions: firstly, the string configurational entropy may loose the string tension and then, free magnetic monopoles should also be found in lower dimensional spin ices; secondly, in contrast to the string configurational entropy, an entropically driven Coulomb force, which increases with temperature, has the opposite effect of confining the magnetic defects.Comment: 8 pages. Accepted by Journal of Applied Physics (2009