Speaker
Description
Black hole thermodynamics lies at the crossroads of quantum gravity, information theory, and relativistic field theory, and provides fundamental clues about the microscopic degrees of freedom of gravity. In this talk, I will discuss the insights we have gained from our attempts to understand black holes as thermodynamic systems. I describe the phase structure of black hole spacetimes, and the role of the Euclidean path integral in their study. I further discuss the dual CFT description, and show how important non-perturbative effects can be understood by studying various modifications to the bulk phase structure in the context of gauge-gravity duality. I close with some comments regarding the so-called black hole information paradox, and suggest avenues for future exploration.
