Microscopic Origin of the Entropy of Black Holes in General Relativity

Balasubramanian, Vijay; Lawrence, Albion; Magán, Javier M.; Sasieta, Martin

doi:10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011024

Microscopic Origin of the Entropy of Black Holes in General Relativity

Journal Article · Wed Feb 21 00:00:00 EST 2024 · Physical Review. X

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011024· OSTI ID:2310408

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University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States); Santa Fe Institute, NM (United States); Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium)
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (United States)
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States); Instituto Balseiro, Rio Negro (Argentina)
Martin Fisher School of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02453, USA

We construct an infinite family of microstates with geometric interiors for eternal black holes in general relativity with a negative cosmological constant in any dimension. Wormholes in the Euclidean path integral for gravity cause these states to have small, but nonzero, quantum mechanical overlaps that have a universal form. The overlaps have a dramatic consequence: The microstates span a Hilbert space of log dimension equal to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The semiclassical microstates we construct contain Einstein-Rosen bridges of arbitrary size behind their horizons. Our results imply that all these bridges can be interpreted as quantum superpositions of wormholes of size at most exponential in the entropy.

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Research Organization:: Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA (United States); Univ. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States); University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0009986; SC0013528; SC0020360

OSTI ID:: 2310408

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 2579774
OSTI ID: 2889251

Journal Information:: Physical Review. X, Journal Name: Physical Review. X Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 14; ISSN 2160-3308

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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