Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 1993
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993phdt........48h&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PH.D.)--PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 1993.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-05, Section: B, page: 2558.
Physics
3
Black Hole Evaporation, Entropy, Extremal Holes
Scientific paper
The semi-classical calculation of black hole evaporation suggests the use of thermal concepts such as temperature and entropy. This makes black holes seem very different from particles treated in Quantum Field Theory and has led to many paradoxes and speculations about the validity of the general framework of Quantum Field Theory. For extremally charged black holes the thermal description is however demonstrably misleading and inappropriate. As it was recently discovered that their qualitative features depend significantly on the embedding microscopic theory, several cases need to be distinguished. If a dilaton is added the (formal) entropy of extremal holes vanishes, in contrast to the large entropy of traditional black holes. The (formal) temperature is zero, finite or infinite, depending on the coupling constant a of the dilaton to the electromagnetic field. The tendency to radiate at the extreme is at first sight quite disturbing. However by analyzing the perturbations around extremal holes we show that these holes are protected by mass gaps, which remove them from thermal contact with the external world. We suggest that the behavior of these extreme dilaton black holes can reasonably be interpreted as the holes doing their best to behave like normal elementary particles. The a < 1 holes behave qualitatively as extended objects. Even for these and for uncharged black holes, the semi-classical calculation does not necessarily imply loss of quantum coherence. We argue this point using the moving mirror problem, which mimics in a precise way the process of black hole formation and evaporation. Explicit trajectories can be found which are such that a quantum state is indistinguishable from a thermal state for an arbitrarily long time and yet eventually becomes pure at a small cost in energy. In this model it becomes apparent that correlations over long time-intervals--including the thermal period--but no energy flux, are required to restore quantum purity. Extensions of the model to mimic black holes more accurately (including the effects of back reaction and space-time fluctuations), while remaining within the realm of tractable models, are suggested.
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