Black hole mechanics and thermodynamics in the light of Weyl transformations

Abstract

The fate of black hole thermodynamics under Weyl transformations is investigated by going back to the laws of black hole mechanics. It is shown that the transformed surface gravity, that one would identify with the black hole temperature in the conformal frame, as well as the black hole entropy, that one would identify with the horizon area, cannot be invariant. It is also shown that the conformally invariant surface gravity, attributed to the so-called "conformal Killing horizon", cannot represent the black hole temperature in the conformal frame. Finally, using familiar thought experiments, we find that the effect a Weyl transformation should have on black hole thermodynamics becomes even subtler than what is suggested by the laws of black hole mechanics