标题： 黑洞热力学的统计力学 显示英文标题

标题： The Statistical Mechanics of Black Hole Thermodynamics

摘要： 尽管我们有令人信服的证据表明黑洞具有与其表面（视界）面积成比例的熵，但这种熵的“统计力学”解释仍然未知。 与此相关的两个基本问题是：熵的微观起源是什么？为什么在包括视界熵的情况下，熵增定律仍然成立？ 在回顾了回答这些问题的一些困难之后，我提出了一种对熵增定律的解释，在“半经典”近似背景下接近于证明，并且在假设后者满足某些自然期望（如在无限远处可定义守恒能量）的情况下，也提供了完整的量子引力中的证明。 这种解释似乎需要基本的时空离散性，以使熵保持一致的有限性，并且我简要回顾了一些关于这种离散性的想法。 如果这些想法正确，那么我们对视界熵的了解将使我们能够“数出时空的原子”。 显示英文摘要

摘要： Although we have convincing evidence that a black hole bears an entropy proportional to its surface (horizon) area, the ``statistical mechanical'' explanation of this entropy remains unknown. Two basic questions in this connection are: what is the microscopic origin of the entropy, and why does the law of entropy increase continue to hold when the horizon entropy is included? After a review of some of the difficulties in answering these questions, I propose an explanation of the law of entropy increase which comes near to a proof in the context of the ``semi-classical'' approximation, and which also provides a proof in full quantum gravity under the assumption that the latter fulfills certain natural expectations, like the existence of a conserved energy definable at infinity. This explanation seems to require a fundamental spacetime discreteness in order for the entropy to be consistently finite, and I recall briefly some of the ideas for what the discreteness might be. If such ideas are right, then our knowledge of the horizon entropy will allow us to ``count the atoms of spacetime''.