Nontriviality in Black Hole Thermodynamics: towards physically and mathematically rigorous foundation as phenomenology

Abstract

Comparing black hole thermodynamics with the axiomatic formulation of thermodynamics for laboratory systems, it is found that some basic assumptions (required by experimental facts) in laboratory thermodynamics do not hold for black hole thermodynamics. Hence, at present, it is not obvious whether black hole thermodynamics retains some crucial theorems of laboratory thermodynamics (e.g. Carnot's theorem, increase of entropy by arbitrary adiabatic process, and uniqueness of entropy) whose proofs use the basic assumptions which do not hold for black holes. This paper aims to clarify such nontriviality in black hole thermodynamics, and propose a suitable set of basic assumptions in black hole thermodynamics, which are regarded as the rigorous foundation of black hole thermodynamics as phenomenology.