Curvature independence of statistical entropy

Abstract

We examine the statistical number of states, from which statistical entropy can be derived, and we show that it is an explicit function of the metric and thus observer dependent. We find a constraint on a transformation of the metric that preserves the number of states but does not preserve curvature. In showing exactly how curvature independence arises in the conventional definition of statistical entropy, we gain a precise understanding of the direction in which it needs to be redefined in the treatment of black hole entropy.