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