Lorentzian approach to black hole thermodynamics in the Hamiltonian formulation

Abstract

In this work, we extend the analysis of Brown and York to find the quasilocal energy in a spherical box in the Schwarzschild spacetime. Quasilocal energy is the value of the Hamiltonian that generates unit magnitude proper-time translations on the box orthogonal to the spatial hypersurfaces foliating the Schwarzschild spacetime. We call this Hamiltonian the Brown-York Hamiltonian. We find different classes of foliations that correspond to time-evolution by the Brown-York Hamiltonian. We show that although the Brown-York expression for the quasilocal energy is correct, one needs to supplement their derivation with an extra set of boundary conditions on the interior end of the spatial hypersurfaces inside the hole in order to obtain it from an action principle. Replacing this set of boundary conditions with another set yields the Louko-Whiting Hamiltonian, which corresponds to time-evolution of spatial hypersurfaces in a different foliation of the Schwarzschild spacetime. We argue that in the thermodynamical picture, the Brown-York Hamiltonian corresponds to the internal energy whereas the Louko-Whiting Hamiltonian corresponds to the Helmholtz free energy of the system. Unlike what has been the usual route to black hole thermodynamics in the past, this observation immediately allows us to obtain the partition function of such a system without resorting to any kind of Euclideanization of either the Hamiltonian or the action. In the process, we obtain some interesting insights into the geometrical nature of black hole thermodynamics.