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Physica A: Statistical and Theoretical Physics
Volume 158, Issue 1 , 15 May 1989, Pages 437-447

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doi:10.1016/0378-4371(89)90541-4    How to cite or link using doi (opens new window) Cite or link using doi  
Copyright © 1989 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of gravitation in thermal physics (and thermo field theory)

Bernard F. Whiting

Institute of Field Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3255, USA

Available online 23 September 2002.


Abstract

With his introduction of quantum mechanical considerations in the treatment of gravitating systems, Hawking indicated a way for the inclusion of general relativity into quantum (and, in particular, thermal) physics. However, probably the single most difficult phenomenon to deal with, subsequent to his work, has been the gravitational attraction of the very feature which his work leads to, viz, the thermal bath surrounding a black hole in equilibrium. It was not until York introduced a finite containing box for the system that certain problematical infinities could be removed and the treatment became well defined, with a sensible, describable, thermodynamic limit, and the possibility of finally realizing a satisfactory canonical ensemble for a black hole in a box. Gravitating systems could then be described thermodynamically, and the problem naturally admitted a path integral formulation which has been used to determine the contribution of non-classical geometries to the partition function for the black hole topological sector of the gravitational field. The application of this method to more familiar problems with a fixed space-time suggests an explicit interpretation of the theory of thermo field dynamics when thermal disturbances of the gravitational field can be ignored. This particular understanding may be extended to include small perturbative fluctuations of the geometry (loosely called gravitons) but it seems inappropriate for dealing with the actual structure of the space-time manifold, whereas gravitational thermodynamics, as referred to above, would remain perfectly adequate.



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Physica A: Statistical and Theoretical Physics
Volume 158, Issue 1 , 15 May 1989 , Pages 437-447


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