This thesis reviews the use of 2-dimensional conformal field theory applied to gravity, specifically calculating Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of black holes in (2+1) dimensions. A brief review of general relativity, Conformal Field Theory, energy extraction from black holes, and black hole thermodynamics will be given. The Cardy formula, which calculates the entropy of a black hole from the AdS/CFT duality, will be shown to calculate the correct Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the static and rotating BTZ black holes. The first law of black hole thermodynamics of the static, rotating, and charged-rotating BTZ black holes will be verified. / vii, 119 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Melbourne, School of Physics, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-135).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, January 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1997. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Richard Matzner. Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 90-94).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

The fuzzball model of a black hole is an attempt to resolve the many paradoxes and puzzles of black hole physics that have revealed themselves over the last century. These badly behaved solutions of general relativity have given physicists one of the few laboratories to test candidate quantum theories of gravity. Though little is known about exactly what lies beyond the event horizon, and what the ultimate fate of matter that falls in to a black hole is, we know a few intriguing and elegant semi-classical results that have kept physicists occupied. Among these are the known black hole entropy and the Hawking radiation process.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-11-10Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:28:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 ried_k_me_ift.pdf: 945643 bytes, checksum: 96fe05a885b68fc97682e8238f4ecf2c (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / When seeking inspiration for a future theory of quantum gravity, studying black holes is a promising ansatz, since they present us with several puzzles at the intersection of quantum theory and gravity. Among these is their entropy: although there are compelling arguments for its existence, its origin and statistical meaning remain a mystery. Previous work showed that at least some aspects of this phenomenon can be accounted for by the entanglement of quantum fields across the horizon: if a field is globally in a pure state, yet part of it is hidden behind the event horizon, then the reduced state of the remainder possesses non-zero entropy. This is the possibility we explore in the present work, in the simplest of settings: a ground-state escalar field, defined in three-dimensional, flat or unifromily curved space, and derive an expression for the entropy, which is evauated numerically. the results show that the entropy scales with the boundary area of the inaccessible region, a key feature of black hole entropy known as the area law. Furthermore. we conclude that the dominant contribution to the entropy is due to short-range interactions, and discuss some physical implications of this insight for the puzzle of black hole entropy