Renormalization of Black Hole Entropy and of the Gravitational Coupling Constant

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arXiv:hep-th/9506066v1 9 Jun 1995,

PUPT1541,IASSNS95/49

hep-th/9506066

June1995

RenormalizationofBlackHoleEntropyand

oftheGravitationalCouplingConstant

FinnLarsen⋆

DepartmentofPhysics

JosephHenryLaboratories

PrincetonUniversity

Princeton,N.J.08544

FrankWilczek†

SchoolofNaturalSciences

InstituteforAdvancedStudy

OldenLane

Princeton,N.J.08540ABSTRACT

Thequantumcorrectionstoblackholeentropy,variouslydefined,suffer

quadraticdivergencesreminiscentoftheonesfoundintherenormalizationofthe

gravitationalcouplingconstant(Newtonconstant).Weconsiderthesuggestion,

duetoSusskindandUglum,thatthesedivergencesareproportional,andattempt

toclarifyitsprecisemeaning.Wearguethatiftheblackholeentropyisidentified

usingaEuclideanformulation,includingthenecessarysurfacetermasproposedby

GibbonsandHawking,thentheproportionalityis,uptosmallidentifiablecorrec-

tions,afairlyimmediateconsequenceofbasicprinciples–alow-energytheorem.

ThusinthisframeworkrenormalizingtheNewtonconstantrenderstheentropy

finite,andequal,inthelimitoflargemass,toitssemiclassicalvalue.Asapartial

checkonourformalargumentswecomparetheoneloopdeterminants,calculated

usingheatkernelregularization.Analternativedefinitionofblackholeentropyre-

latesittobehavioratconicalsingularitiesintwodimensions,andthustoasuitable

definitionofgeometricentropy.Adefinitionofgeometricentropy,naturalfromthe

pointofviewofheatkernelregularization,permitsthesamerenormalization,but

itdoesnotyieldanintrinsicallypositivequantity.Thepossibility,forscalarfields,

ofnon-minimalcouplingtobackgroundcurvatureallowsonetoconsidertestthe

frameworkinacontinuousfamilyoftheories,andcruciallyinvolvesasubtlesen-

sitivityofgeometricentropytocurvedspacecouplings.Fermionsandgaugefields

areconsideredaswell.Theirfunctionaldeterminantsarecloselyrelatedtothe

determinantsfornon-minimallycoupledscalarfieldswithspecificvaluesforthe

curvaturecoupling,andposenofurtherdifficulties.

21.Introduction

Ithasbeenproposedthatthedivergencesoftheentropyinblackholethermo-

dynamicshavethesameoriginas,andindeedareproportionalto,thedivergences

ofthegravitationalcouplingconstantinna¨ıveperturbativequantumgravity[1].

Thepossibilityofsuchaconnectioniscertainlyappealing,butseveralobjections

havebeenraisedtoit[1–3].Foronething,thedivergencesarisinginrenormaliza-

tionofGarecertainlysensitivetonon-minimalcouplingsofthematterfieldsto

curvature,whereastherelevantentropycanbeidentifiedinflatspace.Also,the

divergentrenormalizations,atoneloop,canhaveeithersigndependingonthespin

andcurvaturecouplingofthefieldinvolved,whereastheentropywouldappearto

beintrinsicallypositivebydefinition.Moreover,sincebothsidesoftheproposed

equalityareinfinite,andtheprecisedefinitionofoneside(theblackholeentropy)

isnotoriouslycontroversial,clearlysomenon-trivialquestionsofinterpretationare

involved.Inthispaperweshallproposeaninterpretationinwhichtheclaimis

bothpreciseandtrue,asalow-energytheorem.Weshallalsodiscusstheten-

sionsthatariseinotherinterpretations,andshowthatatleastsomeofthese–

specifically,thetwomentionedabove–arelessseverethanappearsatfirstsight.

WewillfirstconsiderthedefinitionofblackholeentropyproposedbyGibbons

andHawking[4–5],withintheirEuclideanapproachtoquantumgravity.Ifwe

acceptthatframeworkforconsideringblackholeentropy,thenthisentropyarises

fromasurfacetermintheeffectiveaction,whosecoefficientisrelatedinaprecise

numericalfashiontothebulkEinstein-Hilbertterm.ThecoefficientoftheEinstein-

Hilbertterm,ofcourse,inturndefinestheobservedNewtonconstantG.Thusone

obtains,inthelimitoflargeblackholes,alow-energytheoremfortheblackhole

entropy,expressingitdirectlyintermsofthefullyrenormalizedNewtonconstant.

Thisresultreliesonlyonthestructureoftheaction,soitisvalidupontherather

mildassumptionthattheeffectivequantumactionhasthesamestructureasthe

classicalone.Inthisregard,notethattotreatlargeblackholesintheEuclidean

formalismoneneedonlyconsidersmoothmanifoldsofuniformlysmallcurvature.

3Unfortunatelytheseargumentsareofcoursepurelyformal,sincetherearese-

riousproblemswiththeultravioletbehavioroftheunderlyingtheory,andallthe

quantitiesinvolvedareinfiniteunlessregulated.WithintheEuclideanframework

thedivergencesintheentropyandinthequantumcorrectionstoNewton’scon-

stanthaveacommonorigininlocalvacuumpolarization.Heatkernelmethods

provideanappropriatewaytoregulatesuchdivergencesfortheone-loopcontri-

butionofmatterfields,whilemaintainingsymmetryandlocality[6–9].Usingthis

regularization,wecalculatetheleadingcutoffdependenceexplicitlyinauniform

mannerforvariousspinsandstatistics(andforminimalornon-minimalcoupling).

TheGibbons–Hawkingdefinitionofblackholeentropydoesnotonthefaceof

itofferasatisfactoryunderstandingofthisentropybasedonthesameprinciplesas

conventionaldefinitionsofentropyinstatisticalphysics.Thusitisnotsuperfluous