Power-law corrections to black-hole entropy via entanglement

We consider the entanglement between quantum field degrees of freedom inside and outside the horizon as a plausible source of black-hole entropy. We examine possible deviations of black hole entropy from area proportionality. We show that while the area law holds when the field is in its ground state, a correction term proportional to a fractional power of area results when the field is in a superposition of ground and excited states. We compare our results with the other approaches in the literature.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Proceedings of "BH2, Dynamics and Thermodynamics of Blackholes and Naked Singularities", May 10-12 2007, Milano, Italy; conference website: http://www.mate.polimi.it/bh2

High frequency quasi-normal modes for black holes with generic singularities II: Asymptotically non-flat spacetimes

The possibility that the asymptotic quasi-normal mode (QNM) frequencies can be used to obtain the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy for the Schwarzschild black hole -- commonly referred to as Hod's conjecture -- has received considerable attention. To test this conjecture, using monodromy technique, attempts have been made to analytically compute the asymptotic frequencies for a large class of black hole spacetimes. In an earlier work, two of the current authors computed the high frequency QNMs for scalar perturbations of $(D+2)$ dimensional spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat, single horizon spacetimes with generic power-law singularities. In this work, we extend these results to asymptotically non-flat spacetimes. Unlike the earlier analyses, we treat asymptotically flat and de Sitter spacetimes in a unified manner, while the asymptotic anti-de Sitter spacetimes is considered separately. We obtain master equations for the asymptotic QNM frequency for all the three cases. We show that for all the three cases, the real part of the asymptotic QNM frequency -- in general -- is not proportional to ln(3) thus indicating that the Hod's conjecture may be restrictive.Comment: 16 pages; 3 Figures; Revtex4; Final Version -- To appear in CQ

Randall-Sundrum with Kalb-Ramond field: return of the hierarchy problem?

We show that when the antisymmetric Kalb-Ramond field is included in the Randall-Sundrum scenario, although the hierarchy problem can be solved, it requires an extreme fine tuning of the Kalb-Ramond field (about 1 part in $10^{62}$). We interpret this as the return of the problem in disguise. Further, we show that the Kalb-Ramond field induces a small negative cosmological constant on the visible brane.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 4 figures. Contributed talk at `Recent Developments in Gravity' (NEB XII), Nafplion, Greece, 29 June 200

Entanglement as a source of black hole entropy

We review aspects of black hole thermodynamics, and show how entanglement of a quantum field between the inside and outside of a horizon can account for the area-proportionality of black hole entropy, provided the field is in its ground state. We show that the result continues to hold for Coherent States and Squeezed States, while for Excited States, the entropy scales as a power of area less than unity. We also identify location of the degrees of freedom which give rise to the above entropy.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 5 figures. Invited talk by SD at `Recent Developments in Gravity' (NEB XII), Nafplion, Greece, 30 June 2006. To appear in Journal of Physics: Conference Series; V2: References added, Minor changes to match published versio