On the Status of Highly Entropic Objects

TL;DR

This paper examines whether objects that violate entropy bounds could influence Hawking radiation, potentially challenging or supporting the fundamental limits on entropy based on size and energy.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of considering objects violating entropy bounds in the derivation of these bounds and discusses their possible observational implications.

Findings

Objects violating entropy bounds could affect Hawking radiation.

Existing derivations of entropy bounds may need revision.

Potential observational evidence for or against entropy bounds.

Abstract

It has been proposed that the entropy of any object must satisfy fundamental (holographic or Bekenstein) bounds set by the object's size and perhaps its energy. However, most discussions of these bounds have ignored the possibility that objects violating the putative bounds could themselves become important components of Hawking radiation. We show that this possibility cannot a priori be neglected in existing derivations of the bounds. Thus this effect could potentially invalidate these derivations; but it might also lead to observational evidence for the bounds themselves.