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Do gauge fields really contribute negatively to black hole entropy?

3 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

3 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Quantum fluctuations of matter fields contribute to the thermal entropy of black holes. For free minimally-coupled scalar and spinor fields, this contribution is precisely the entanglement entropy. For gauge fields, Kabat found an extra negative divergent "contact term" with no known statistical interpretation. We compare this contact term to a similar term that arises for nonminimally-coupled scalar fields. Although both divergences may be interpreted as terms in the Wald entropy, we point out that the contact term for gauge fields comes from a gauge-dependent ambiguity in Wald's formula. Revisiting Kabat's derivation of the contact term, we show that it is sensitive to the treatment of infrared modes. To explore these infrared issues, we consider two-dimensional compact manifolds, such as Euclidean de Sitter space, and show that the contact term arises from an incorrect treatment of zero modes. In a manifestly gauge-invariant reduced phase space quantization, the gauge field contribution to the entropy is positive, finite, and equal to the entanglement entropy.

citation-role summary

background 1 method 1

citation-polarity summary

fields

hep-th 3

years

2026 1 2025 2

verdicts

UNVERDICTED 3

representative citing papers

Gravitons on Nariai Edges

hep-th · 2025-06-02 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

The one-loop graviton path integral on S² × S^{d-1} factorizes into a bulk thermal graviton gas partition function in Nariai geometry and an edge contribution from shift-symmetric fields on S^{d-1}.

De Sitter Horizon Edge Partition Functions

hep-th · 2025-01-29 · unverdicted · novelty 5.0

Edge partition functions for totally symmetric tensors in dS_{d+1} are decomposed under so(d), with the linearized gravity case receiving contributions from shift-symmetric fields on S^{d-1} suggesting an embedded brane interpretation.

citing papers explorer

Showing 3 of 3 citing papers.

  • Horizon Edge Partition Functions in $\Lambda>0$ Quantum Gravity hep-th · 2026-03-21 · unverdicted · none · ref 40 · internal anchor

    Horizon edge mode spectra in de Sitter and Nariai spacetimes exhibit universal shift symmetries that produce novel symmetry breaking in one-loop partition functions.

  • Gravitons on Nariai Edges hep-th · 2025-06-02 · unverdicted · none · ref 35 · internal anchor

    The one-loop graviton path integral on S² × S^{d-1} factorizes into a bulk thermal graviton gas partition function in Nariai geometry and an edge contribution from shift-symmetric fields on S^{d-1}.

  • De Sitter Horizon Edge Partition Functions hep-th · 2025-01-29 · unverdicted · none · ref 33 · internal anchor

    Edge partition functions for totally symmetric tensors in dS_{d+1} are decomposed under so(d), with the linearized gravity case receiving contributions from shift-symmetric fields on S^{d-1} suggesting an embedded brane interpretation.