arXiv · 2606.13599
Black Hole Thermodynamics Meets On-Shell Amplitudes: Local Detailed Balance and Thermal Spectrum from Spin Universality and Unitarity
Abstract
We develop an on-shell framework for thermal dissipation and radiation by macroscopic objects, whose large degeneracy of internal states is encoded in their entropy. In this framework, equilibrium asymptotic states are represented as on-shell particles, while non-equilibrium processes are described by on-shell transition amplitudes between them. A central observation is that spinning states remain essential even for macroscopically non-rotating objects. Consistency with macroscopic symmetries then implies spin universality, whereby all spinning states are governed by a single universal coupling. A key consequence is that absorption and emission probabilities are controlled by the same coupling, yielding local detailed balance directly from on-shell data. Applied to black holes, our framework reproduces the thermal emission spectrum and relates the Hawking temperature to the condition of maximal absorption consistent with unitary time evolution.
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Dogan Akpinar, Katsuki Aoki, Andrea Cristofoli, Hyun Jeong, Kaho Yoshimura. 2026-06-11. Black Hole Thermodynamics Meets On-Shell Amplitudes: Local Detailed Balance and Thermal Spectrum from Spin Universality and Unitarity. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.13599
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