Gravitation, the Quantum, and Bohr's Correspondence Principle

Abstract

The black hole combines in some sense both the ``hydrogen atom'' and the ``black-body radiation'' problems of quantum gravity. This analogy suggests that black-hole quantization may be the key to a quantum theory of gravity. During the last twenty-five years evidence has been mounting that black-hole surface area is indeed {\it quantized}, with {\it uniformally} spaced area eigenvalues. There is, however, no general agreement on the {\it spacing} of the levels. In this essay we use Bohr's correspondence principle to provide this missing link. We conclude that the fundamental area unit is $4\hbar\ln3$. This is the unique spacing consistent both with the area-entropy {\it thermodynamic} relation for black holes, with Boltzmann-Einstein formula in {\it statistical physics} and with {\it Bohr's correspondence principle}.

8 pages. This essay received the Fifth Prize from the Gravity Research Foundation 1999