Entropy Constraints on High Spin Particles

Abstract

Elementary particles of large spin $s$ store quantum information in degenerate states and therefore are subject to the Bekenstein entropy bound. We observe that for sufficiently large $s$ the bound is violated unless the particle acquires a new associated length-scale different from its Compton wavelength. This can be regarded as a glimpse of stringiness. Moreover, this bound is independent of gravity. The inclusion of gravity additionally generates a new scale at which the thermality of the black hole radiation is violated by the emission of a high spin particle. This bound can be understood as the black hole species bound, i.e. an induced quantum gravity cutoff-scale given by $M_P/\sqrt{s}$. The two bounds carry qualitatively different information.