Black hole entropy as entanglement entropy: a holographic derivation

Abstract

We study the possibility that black hole entropy be identified as entropy of entanglement across the horizon of the vacuum of a quantum field in the presence of the black hole. We argue that a recent proposal for computing entanglement entropy using AdS/CFT holography implies that black hole entropy can be exactly equated with entanglement entropy. The implementation of entanglement entropy in this context solves all the problems (such as cutoff dependence and the species problem) typically associated with this identification.