title: Near-horizon conformal symmetry and black hole entropy.
abstract: Near an event horizon, the action of general relativity acquires a new asymptotic conformal symmetry. For two-dimensional dilaton gravity, this symmetry results in a chiral Virasoro algebra, and Cardy's formula for the density of states reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. This lends support to the notion that black hole entropy is controlled universally by conformal symmetry near the horizon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. carlip@dirac.ucdavis.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carlip