Tufts/CfA/MIT Cosmology Seminar, at MIT:

Gilad Lifschytz, Brandeis University

Title: On the Origin of Black Hole Thermodynamics

Abstract:
I describe an approach to the microstate origin of black hole thermodynamics.
The large number of states is due to the special properties of the horizon.
They arise in the semiclassical picture as a result of a large effect on the
matter fields, from the small fluctuations in the gravitational sector, as
seen by an outside observer. The many different states are seen to "live"
outside the event horizon and make what might be called a "stretched horizon".
The statistical properties of the "stretched horizon" are computed and are
shown to agree with the thermodynamical properties of the black hole.