Some Speculations about Black Hole Entropy in String Theory

It is commonplace, in the literature, to find that the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy has been endowed with having an explicit statistical interpretation. In the following essay, we discuss why such a viewpoint warrants a certain degree of caution.

We make some observations regarding string/black hole correspondence with a view to understanding the nature of the quantum degrees of freedom of a black hole in string theory. In particular, we compare entropy change in analogous string and black hole processes in order to support the interpretation of the area law entropy as arising from stringy constituents.

In this note, we extend the string theoretic calculation of the black hole entropy, first performed by Susskind and Uglum, away from the infinite mass limit. It is shown that the result agrees with that obtained from the classical action of string theory, using the Noether charge method developed by Wald. Also shown in the process is the equivalence of two general techniques for finding black hole entropies-the Noether charge method, and the method of conical singularities.

We reconsider entropy of black holes which do not have finite area horizon. It is suggested that some of them should have nonzero entropy from both supergravity and string theory point of view. We also refine our arguments in our previous papers for the existence of the microstates of the black hole.

In this paper the entropy of an eternal Schwarzschild black hole is studied in the limit of infinite black hole mass. The problem is addressed from the point of view of both canonical quantum gravity and superstring theory. The entropy per unit area of a free scalar field propagating in a fixed black hole background is shown to be quadratically divergent near the horizon. It is shown that such quantum corrections to the entropy per unit area are equivalent to the quantum corr...

The statistical mechanics of black holes arbitrarily far from extremality is modeled by a gas of weakly interacting strings. As an effective low energy description of black holes the model provides a number of highly non-trivial consistency checks and predictions. Speculations on a fundamental origin of the model suggest surprising simplifications in non-perturbative string theory, even in the absence of supersymmetry.

I review a new (and still tentative) approach to black hole thermodynamics that seeks to explain black hole entropy in terms of microscopic quantum gravitational boundary states induced on the black hole horizon.

We give an elementary review of black holes in string theory. We discuss black hole entropy from string microstates and Hawking radiation from these states. We then review the structure of 2-charge microstates, and explore how `fractionation' can lead to quantum effects over macroscopic length scales of order the horizon radius.

To explain black hole thermodynamics in quantum gravity, one must introduce constraints to ensure that a black hole is actually present. I show that for a large class of black holes, such ``horizon constraints'' allow the use of conformal field theory techniques to compute the density of states, reproducing the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy in a nearly model-independent manner. One standard string theory approach to black hole entropy arises as a special case, lending support to...

Quantum aspects of black holes represent an important testing ground for a theory of quantum gravity. The recent success of string theory in reproducing the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula provides a link between general relativity and quantum mechanics via thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Here we speculate on the existence of new and unexpected links between black holes and polymers and other soft-matter systems.