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Condensation of area quanta ensembles with quantum statistics in Schwarzschild spacetimes

Ryley McGovern, Seth Major*, Trevor Scheuing, and Thomas Takis

  • *Contact author: smajor@hamilton.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 046021 – Published 26 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/tkl8-lfmf

Abstract

Near-horizon (equivalently high acceleration) observers in spherically symmetric black hole spacetimes have a particularly simple form of the quasilocal energy. Using this energy and indistinguishable area quanta satisfying quantum statistics, a statistical mechanical description of the Schwarzschild black hole geometry for uniformly accelerating observers is developed. The resulting model has several phases including one with highly excited states, Bose-Einstein condensates, condensates distinct from the usual Bose gas, and degenerate Fermi gases. In the large area limit, relevant for comparison to the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy, the new condensed state is favored over Bose-Einstein condensation and the degenerate Fermi gas. The entropies of the phases, and the entropy of mixing, are computed. The resulting low-entropic condensed state, in which the quanta are essentially all in the lowest Bose energy state, provides the framework for the quantization of near-horizon geometric fluctuations, which is explored in S. Major et al. [arXiv:2601.08794].

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 046021– Published 26 February, 2026
  • Received 16 January 2026
  • Accepted 9 February 2026
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