Ten Theses on Black Hole Entropy

Abstract

I present a viewpoint on black hole thermodynamics according to which the entropy: derives from horizon "degrees of freedom"; is finite because the deep structure of spacetime is discrete; is "objective" thanks to the distinguished coarse graining provided by the horizon; and obeys the second law of thermodynamics precisely because the effective dynamics of the exterior region is not unitary.

plainTeX, 14 pages, no figures. several typos corrected. Most current version is available at http://www.pitp.ca/personal/rsorkin/some.papers/118.ten.theses.pdf (or wherever my home-page may be)