Black hole as an Information Eraser

TL;DR

This paper links black hole entropy to information erasure principles, deriving thermodynamics from Landauer's principle and proposing a discrete mass spectrum with logarithmic corrections.

Contribution

It introduces a novel perspective by connecting black hole thermodynamics with information theory, deriving entropy and mass spectra without artificial cutoffs.

Findings

Black hole entropy includes a logarithmic correction term.

The first law of black hole thermodynamics can be derived from information erasure.

A minimum black hole mass is proposed based on information theory.

Abstract

We discuss the identity of black hole entropy and show that the first law of black hole thermodynamics, in the case of a Schwarzschild black hole, can be derived from Landauer's principle by assuming that the black hole is one of the most efficient information erasers in systems of a given temperature. The term "most efficient" implies that minimal energy is required to erase a given amount of information. We calculate the discrete mass spectra and the entropy of a Schwarzschild black hole assuming that the black hole processes information in unit of bits. The black hole entropy acquires a sub-leading contribution proportional to the logarithm of its mass-squared in addition to the usual mass-squared term without an artificial cutoff. We also argue that the minimum of the black hole mass is $\sqrt{\log 2/(8\pi)}M_P$.