Bondi-Metzner-Sachs symmetry, holography on null-surfaces and area proportionality of ``light-slice'' entropy (Q630118)

In this article, Schroer analyzes the quantum aspect of two problems which appeared originally in classical general gravity, i.e. the Bondy-Metzner-Sachs symmetry in asymptotically flat curved spacetime and the Bekenstein area law for event horizens in classical field theory of the Einstein-Hilbert type. In the BMS case, Schroer demonstrates that the symmetry gain in holographic projections leads to an infinite parametric group including the Poincaré group. It is difficult to understand the physical interpretation of the Poincaré group as a subgroup of the BMS group in cases where the null-surface is not the infinite lightlike boundary in the sense of Penrose. Fundamental to QFT problems addressed in this article are the principle of causal localization and the Tomita--Takesaki modular theory of local operator algebras. Schroer argues that holography on event horizons and an entropy proportional to an area have not been discussed while unnoticed so far in Minkowski QFT. This casts new light on the basic question whether the volume proportionality of heat bath entropy and the area law are different geometric parametizations. Arguments are presented that these two different manifestations of thermal behavior are in fact related.