String Thermalization at a Black Hole Horizon

TL;DR

The paper explores how a relativistic string approaching a black hole horizon undergoes spreading and thermalization, offering insights into quantum state behavior near black holes and the nature of horizon physics.

Contribution

It introduces a stochastic model of string spreading at the horizon, linking transverse and longitudinal spreading to thermalization mechanisms in black hole physics.

Findings

String spreading occurs in both directions near the horizon.

Transverse spreading can be modeled as a branching diffusion process.

This process explains the thermalization of the string's quantum state.

Abstract

Susskind has recently shown that a relativistic string approaching the event horizon of a black hole spreads in both the transverse and longitudinal directions in the reference frame of an outside observer. The transverse spreading can be described as a branching diffusion of wee string bits. This stochastic process provides a mechanism for thermalizing the quantum state of the string as it spreads across the stretched horizon.