title: Quasinormal modes, the area spectrum, and black hole entropy.
abstract: The results of loop quantum gravity concerning geometric operators and black hole entropy are beset by an ambiguity labeled by the Immirzi parameter. We use a result from classical gravity concerning the quasinormal mode spectrum of a black hole to fix this parameter in a new way. As a result we arrive at the Bekenstein-Hawking expression of A/4l(2)(P) for the entropy of a black hole and in addition see an indication that the appropriate gauge group of quantum gravity is SO(3) and not its covering group SU(2).
authors.affiliation: Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 35 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9, Canada.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dreyer