arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Leonard Susskind.
The classical Bekenstein entropy of a black hole is argued to arise from configurations of strings with ends which are frozen on the horizon. Quantum corrections to this entropy are probably finite unlike the case in quantum field theory. Finally it is speculated that all black holes are single string states. The level density of strings is of the right order of magnitude to reproduce the Bekenstein entropy.
Consistency of quantum mechanics in black hole physics requires unusual Lorentz transformation properties of the size and shape of physical systems with momentum beyond the Planck scale. A simple parton model illustrates the kind of behavior which is needed. It is then shown that conventional fundamental string theory shares these features.
The approach of 't Hooft to the puzzles of black hole evaporation can be applied to a simpler system with analogous features. The system is $1+1$ dimensional electrodynamics in a linear dilaton background. Analogues of black holes, Hawking radiation and evaporation exist in this system. In perturbation theory there appears to be an information paradox but this gets resolved in the full quantum theory and there exists an exact $S$-matrix, which is fully unitary and information conserving. 't Hooft's method gives the leading terms in a systematic approximation to the exact result.