A Survey of Black Hole Thermodynamics

TL;DR

This survey provides an up-to-date overview of black hole thermodynamics, covering laws, horizons, entropy, quantum corrections, and the holographic principle, highlighting recent developments and open questions in the field.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive review of the current understanding of black hole thermodynamics, including recent advances in quantum and string theory corrections.

Findings

Summarizes the four laws of black hole thermodynamics.

Discusses quantum and stringy corrections to black hole entropy.

Explores the holographic principle and its implications for black hole information.

Abstract

This is an introductory, up-to-date review of the essentials of black hole thermodynamics. The main topics surveyed are: (i) the four laws of thermodynamics as applied to a black hole horizon, and the current status of their proofs; (ii) different definitions of horizons, and their unique properties; (iii) the nature of black hole entropy, its quantum and stringy corrections, and ultimate origin from quantum gravity microstates; (iv) the focusing law for the area/entropy; and finally (v) the holographic principle, and how we can use it to learn about the information inside black holes.