Quasinormal modes, the area spectrum, and black hole entropy.
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).
Dreyer
Olaf
O
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 35 King Street North, Waterloo, Ontario N2J 2W9, Canada.