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Entropy of eternal black holes

Abstract

The entropy of a quantum-statistical system which is classically approximated by a general stationary eternal black hole is studied by means of a microcanonical functional integral. This approach opens the possibility of including explicitly the internal degrees of freedom of a physical black hole in path integral descriptions of its thermodynamical properties. If the functional integral is interpreted as the density of states of the system, the corresponding entropy equals calS=AH/4−AH/4=0{cal S} = A_H/4 - A_H/4 =0 in the semiclassical approximation, where AHA_H is the area of the black hole horizon. The functional integral reflects the properties of a pure state.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the Sixth Canadian Conference on General Relativiy and Relativistic Astrophysics, 7 pages, Late

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