Thermodynamics of black holes: an analogy with glasses

Abstract

The present equilibrium formulation of thermodynamics for black holes has several drawbacks, such as assuming the same temperature for black hole and heat bath. Recently the author formulated non-equilibrium thermodynamics for glassy systems. This approach is applied to black holes, with the cosmic background temperature being the bath temperature, and the Hawking temperature the internal temperature. Both Hawking evaporation and absorption of background radiation are taken into account. It is argued that black holes did not form in the very early universe.