Plenty of Nothing: Black Hole Entropy in Induced Gravity

Abstract

We demonstrate how Sakharov's idea of induced gravity allows one to explain the statistical-mechanical origin of the entropy of a black hole. According to this idea, gravity becomes dynamical as the result of quantum effects in the system of heavy constituents of the underlying theory. The black hole entropy is related to the properties of the vacuum in the induced gravity in the presence of the horizon. We obtain the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy by direct counting the states of the constituents.