This book presents a critical analysis of Bekenstein-Hawking Black Hole Thermodynamics. The fundamental problem of this theory is the black hole negative heat capacity, which is inconsistent with thermal equilibrium in Statistical Mechanics. Re-interpreting the WKB formula for the partition function as the decay probability of the false (black hole) vacuum, as is usual in Quantum Field Theory, one arrives instead at the Leblanc-Harms theory describing quantum black holes and black objects as pure state resonant p-brane excitations at the Planck scale, in agreement with general arguments stating that all such excitations should be black holes because their gravitational radius is equal or larger than their effective Compton radius. The book also reviews the important work of the Belinski group demonstrating the non-existence of the Unruh and Hawking effects in Mean-Field theory. The wavefunctions used in the standard calculations do not form complete sets in Minkowski spacetime and a zero-energy mode on the light-cone boundary spoils the Bogoliubov transformation needed for these effects. In support of these conclusions, the Belinski-Pizzi proof of no semiclassical particle tunnelling across a black hole event horizon is also presented. The Leblanc-Harms and Belinski group results therefore lead to the collapse of the Hawking theory of black holes as thermal objects. Quantum black holes are instead pure state Planck scale resonances without a classical horizon structure. The book further discusses black hole horizon formation in trans-Planckian string scattering as well as the non-existence of the maximum Hagedorn temperature in string theories and the inconsistency of string quantization in Hilbert space. It is argued that rigged Hilbert space should be relevant in string and p-brane theories and so quantum black holes should be described as Planck scale Gamow states.
About the Author: Dr. Yvan Leblanc is a theoretical physicist born in Arthabaska (now Victoriaville), Quebec, in 1957. He earned his B.Sc. in 1980 from Laval University in Quebec City and moved to Edmonton to study under the supervision of the late Prof. Hiroomi Umezawa, then Killam Memorial Professor of physics at the University of Alberta. Prof. Umezawa was a well known pioneer in quantum field theory and the principal founder of the Thermo-Field Dynamics formalism of field theory at finite temperature. Dr. Leblanc completed his M.Sc. in 1982 and his Ph.D. in 1986. He was awarded the Ralph Steinhauer Award of Distinction from the Alberta Heritage Scholarship Fund. He then moved on to a postdoctoral visiting research position at the Laboratory for Nuclear Sciences (LNS-CTP) at M.I.T. from 1987 to 1989, to a subsequent position of research assistant at the Universite Paris-Sud (Orsay) during the academic year of 1989-1990 with support from the C.N.R.S., and then worked as an associate researcher at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa from 1990 to 1993, which involved research as well as teaching duties at the graduate and undergraduate levels. At the end of 1993, he moved to the private sector to work on Information Technology projects in Victoriaville, Quebec, remaining affiliated to the U. of Alabama as Adjunct Professor in the physics department up until 1998. In 2002, he created the physics website eFieldTheory.COM where he publishes his most recent articles. He was recently invited to make a presentation at the Twelfth Marcel Grossman Meeting (MG12) at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris in July of 2009. His contribution entitled "Quantum black holes as Planck scale Gamow states" was presented by Prof. Vladimir Belinski of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" at the Henri Poincaré Institute. Dr. Leblanc has over sixty publications on various topics ranging from quantum field theory and string theory at finite temperature, to soliton physics, quantum black holes, as well as the development of a field theory formalism in the microcanonical ensemble called Statistical Field Dynamics. Applications can be found in the study of various nuclear physics problems such as the multifragmentation transition in heavy ions collisions, as well as in problems involving quantum strings, p-branes or even quantum black holes correlations at finite energy.