Abstract
Loop gravity provides a microscopic derivation of black hole entropy. In this paper, I show that the microstates counted admit a semiclassical description in terms of shapes of a tessellated horizon. The counting of microstates and the computation of the entropy can be done via a mapping to an equivalent statistical mechanical problem: the counting of conformations of a closed polymer chain. This correspondence suggests a number of intriguing relations between the thermodynamics of black holes and the physics of polymers.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | 114006 |
Journal | Classical and Quantum Gravity |
Volume | 28 |
Issue number | 11 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 21 2011 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)