Statistics, holography, and black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity

In loop quantum gravity the quantum states of a black hole horizon are produced by point-like discrete quantum geometry excitations (or {\em punctures}) labelled by spin $j$. The excitations possibly carry other internal degrees of freedom also, and the associated quantum states are eigenstates of the area $A$ operator. On the other hand, the appropriately scaled area operator $A/(8\pi\ell)$ is also the physical Hamiltonian associated with the quasilocal stationary observers located at a small distance $\ell$ from the horizon. Thus, the local energy is entirely accounted for by the geometric operator $A$. We assume that: In a suitable vacuum state with regular energy momentum tensor at and close to the horizon the local temperature measured by stationary observers is the Unruh temperature and the degeneracy of `matter' states is exponential with the area $\exp{(\lambda A/\ell_p^2)}$---this is supported by the well established results of QFT in curved spacetimes, which do not determine $\lambda$ but asserts an exponential behaviour. The geometric excitations of the horizon (punctures) are indistinguishable. In the semiclassical limit the area of the black hole horizon is large in Planck units. It follows that: Up to quantum corrections, matter degrees of freedom saturate the holographic bound, {\em viz.} $\lambda=\frac{1}{4}$. Up to quantum corrections, the statistical black hole entropy coincides with Bekenstein-Hawking entropy $S={A}/({4\ell_p^2})$. The number of horizon punctures goes like $N\propto \sqrt{A/\ell_p^2}$, i.e the number of punctures $N$ remains large in the semiclassical limit. Fluctuations of the horizon area are small while fluctuations of the area of an individual puncture are large. A precise notion of local conformal invariance of the thermal state is recovered in the $A\to\infty$ limit where the near horizon geometry becomes Rindler.