MS Seminar (Mathematics - String Theory)

Speaker: Aron Wall (UCSB)
Title: Why is the generalized second law true?
Date (JST): Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 13:15 - 14:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Related File: 1045.pdf
Abstract: Black holes (and other kinds of horizons) seem to obey a generalization of the second law of thermodynamics. The entropy outside, plus a term proportional to the area, always increases. But no one knows for sure what kind of information is being counted by this area term. I will show how restricting quantum fields to the horizon enables one to elegantly prove the generalized second law. Then I will speculate on the implications for the microstates of the black hole.