Abstract
It is shown that the entropy of the radiation evaporated by an uncharged, nonrotating black hole into vacuum in the course of its lifetime is approximately times the initial entropy of this black hole. Also considered is a thermodynamically reversible process in which an increase of black-hole entropy is equal to the decrease of the entropy of its surroundings. Implications of these results for the generalized second law of thermodynamics and for the interpretation of black-hole entropy are pointed out.
- Received 30 August 1982
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.49.1683
©1982 American Physical Society