Gedanken experiments on nearly extremal black holes and the third law

Journal Article · Mon Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.82.104015· OSTI ID:21503626

Chirco, Goffredo; Liberati, Stefano ^[1]; Sotiriou, Thomas P ^[2]

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1. SISSA-International School for Advanced Studies, Via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste (Italy) and INFN sezione di Trieste (Italy)
2. Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Center for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge, CB3 0WA (United Kingdom)

A gedanken experiment in which a black hole is pushed to spin at its maximal rate by tossing into it a test body is considered. After demonstrating that this is kinematically possible for a test body made of reasonable matter, we focus on its implications for black hole thermodynamics and the apparent violation of the third law (unattainability of the extremal black hole). We argue that this is not an actual violation, due to subtleties in the absorption process of the test body by the black hole, which are not captured by the purely kinematic considerations.

• OSTI ID: 21503626
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 82, Issue 10; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.82.104015; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ABSORPTION
BLACK HOLES
SIMULATION
SPIN
THERMODYNAMICS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
SORPTION