Black hole entropy: inside or out? (Q2506046)

The paper contains notes of the informal discussion between T. Jacobson, D. Marolf and C. Rovelli, which took place during the 9th Peyresq conference [9 Rencontre de Cosmologie de Peyresq ``Micro and macro Structure of Space-time'', Bruxelles, 2004]. The discussion evolved around the question of the nature of black hole entropy. Jacobson and Rovelli support the idea that this entropy measures in some sense ``the number of black hole microstates that can communicate with the outside world''. Marolf is critical of this approach. The discussion is focusing on the question of whether the first law of black hole thermodynamics can be understood from a statistical mechanics point of view.