Talk by Erik Curiel at MCMP (18th Dec)

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: Erik Curiel (MCMP/LMU)
Wednesday 18th Dec 2013
Location: Ludwigstr. 31 room 021
Time: 16:15 - 17:45

Title: Are Classical Black Holes Hot or Cold?

Abstract:
In the early 1970s it was realized that there is a striking formal 
analogy between the so-called laws of black-hole mechanics and the laws 
of classical thermodynamics. Before the discovery of Hawking radiation, 
however, it was generally thought that the analogy was only formal, and 
did not reflect a deep connection between gravitational and 
thermodynamical phenomena. In particular, it is still commonly held that 
the surface gravity of a stationary black hole can be construed as a 
true physical temperature only when quantum effects are taken into 
account; in the context of classical general relativity alone, one 
cannot cogently construe it so.  Does the use of quantum field theory in 
curved spacetime offer the only hope for taking the analogy seriously?  
I think the answer is 'no'. To attempt to justify that answer, I shall 
begin by arguing that the standard argument to the contrary is not 
physically well founded, and in any event begs the question.  Looking at 
the various ways that the idea of "temperature" enters classical 
thermodynamics then will suggest arguments that, I claim, show the 
analogy between classical black-hole mechanics and classical 
thermodynamics should be taken more seriously, at least so far as 
temperature goes, without the need to rely on or invoke quantum 
mechanics.  If this is correct, then there may be a deep connection 
between classical general relativity and classical thermodynamics on 
their own, independent of quantum mechanics.