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Black holes, brick walls and the Boulware state

2 Pith papers cite this work, alongside 93 external citations. Polarity classification is still indexing.

2 Pith papers citing it
93 external citations · Pith
abstract

The brick-wall model seeks to explain the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy as a wall-contribution to the thermal energy of ambient quantum fields raised to the Hawking temperature. Reservations have been expressed concerning the self-consistency of this model. For example, it predicts large thermal energy densities near the wall, producing a substantial mass-correction and, presumably, a large gravitational back-reaction. We re-examine this model and conclude that these reservations are unfounded once the ground state---the Boulware state---is correctly identified. We argue that the brick-wall model and the Gibbons-Hawking instanton (which ascribes a topological origin to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy) are mutually exclusive, alternative descriptions (complementary in the sense of Bohr) of the same physics.

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method 1

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hep-th 2

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2026 2

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UNVERDICTED 2

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representative citing papers

Modular quantization and black holes

hep-th · 2026-06-10 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Modular quantization of a single holographic CFT reproduces exact Hartle-Hawking correlators of smooth BTZ black holes in the semiclassical limit while yielding non-smooth stretched-horizon descriptions at finite GN.

Finite N Black Holes through the Brick Wall

hep-th · 2026-06-04 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Reinterprets the brick-wall model as an effective description of finite-N departures from the semiclassical near-horizon continuum in AdS/CFT, producing residual reflections and model-dependent echoes.

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Showing 2 of 2 citing papers.

  • Modular quantization and black holes hep-th · 2026-06-10 · unverdicted · none · ref 111 · internal anchor

    Modular quantization of a single holographic CFT reproduces exact Hartle-Hawking correlators of smooth BTZ black holes in the semiclassical limit while yielding non-smooth stretched-horizon descriptions at finite GN.

  • Finite N Black Holes through the Brick Wall hep-th · 2026-06-04 · unverdicted · none · ref 16 · internal anchor

    Reinterprets the brick-wall model as an effective description of finite-N departures from the semiclassical near-horizon continuum in AdS/CFT, producing residual reflections and model-dependent echoes.