Is gravitational entropy quantized?

Journal Article · Sat Nov 15 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.78.104018· OSTI ID:21250919

Kothawala, Dawood; Padmanabhan, T; Sarkar, Sudipta ^[1]

---

1. IUCAA, Post Bag 4, Ganeshkhind, Pune-411 007 (India)

In Einstein's gravity, the entropy of horizons is proportional to their area. Several arguments given in the literature suggest that, in this context, both area and entropy should be quantized with an equally-spaced spectrum for large quantum numbers. But in more general theories (like, for example, in the black hole solutions of Gauss-Bonnet or Lanczos-Lovelock gravity) the horizon entropy is not proportional to area and the question arises as to which of the two (if at all) will have this property. We give a general argument that in all Lanczos-Lovelock theories of gravity, it is the entropy that has an equally-spaced spectrum. In the case of Gauss-Bonnet gravity, we use the asymptotic form of quasinormal mode frequencies to explicitly demonstrate this result. Hence, the concept of a quantum of area in Einstein-Hilbert gravity needs to be replaced by a concept of quantum of entropy in a more general context.

• OSTI ID: 21250919
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Journal Name: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 78; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
BLACK HOLES
EINSTEIN FIELD EQUATIONS
ENTROPY
GRAVITATION
QUANTUM GRAVITY
QUANTUM NUMBERS
SPECTRA