1999/12/29 by S. Carlip
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Black hole thermodynamics #Conformal field theory #Conformal symmetry #Entropy (arrow of time) #Extremal black hole #Horizon #Membrane paradigm #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #String theory #gr-qc #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/s0920-5632(00)00748-9
published as Nucl.Phys.Proc.Suppl.88:10-16,2000 · 8 pages, LaTeX; talk given at QG99,``Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity,'' Villasimius, Sept. 1999
arxiv created 1999/12/29 · openalex publication_date 2000/06/01 · arxiv updated 2010/04/28 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
String theory and ``quantum geometry'' have recently offered independent statistical mechanical explanations of black hole thermodynamics. But these successes raise a new problem: why should models with such different microscopic degrees of freedom yield identical results? I propose that the asymptotic behavior of the density of states at a black hole horizon may be determined by an underlying symmetry inherited from classical general relativity, independent of the details of quantum gravity. I offer evidence that a two-dimensional conformal symmetry at the horizon, with a classical central extension, may provide the needed behavior.