Abstract
Recently, we derived an improved universal upper bound to the entropy of a charged system There was, however, some uncertainty in the value of the numerical factor which multiplies the term. In this paper we remove this uncertainty; we rederive this upper bound from an application of the generalized second law of thermodynamics to a gedanken experiment in which an entropy-bearing charged system falls into a Schwarzschild black hole. A crucial step in the analysis is the inclusion of the effect of the spacetime curvature on the electrostatic self-interaction of the charged system.
- Received 2 March 1999
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.61.024023
©1999 American Physical Society