Demons in Black Hole Thermodynamics: Bekenstein and Hawking

TL;DR

This paper examines the historical and scientific interaction between Hawking and Bekenstein, highlighting how their collaboration advanced the understanding of black hole thermodynamics and led to the derivation of black hole entropy and radiation.

Contribution

It reveals how Hawking's work was influenced by Bekenstein and demonstrates the derivation of black hole entropy and radiation within a semiclassical framework.

Findings

Hawking derived black hole thermal radiation using semiclassical approximation.

Hawking's entropy formula matches Bekenstein's entropy equation.

Interaction between Hawking and Bekenstein advanced black hole thermodynamics.

Abstract

This paper comprehensively explores Stephen Hawking's interaction with Jacob Bekenstein. Both Hawking and Bekenstein benefited from the interaction with each other. It is shown that Hawking's interaction with Bekenstein drove him to solve the problems in Bekenstein's black hole thermodynamics in terms of a new thermal radiation mechanism. Hawking derived the thermal radiation using a semiclassical approximation in which the matter fields are treated quantum mechanically on a classical spacetime background. Hawking's semiclassical approximation yielded a simple formula for the entropy of the black hole, which turned out to be equivalent to Bekenstein's equation for entropy.