Do Black Hole Mergers Maximize Entropy?
When two black holes merge, general relativity predicts that the final state is a Kerr Black Hole simply described by its mass M f and angular momentum J f . Numerical Relativity computes these numbers with remarkable precision, but offers no simple insight into why that particular remnant is selected. We ask whether the answer is thermodynamic. By mapping the dynamics of the binary to a curve in the space of Kerr solutions and maximizing the entropy, we predict the mass and angular momentum of the final state. The construction is admittedly ad hoc, yet the agreement is striking. We argue that the final state of binary black hole mergers may be selected by an entropy maximization principle.
Authors
- Ish Gupta (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6932-8715)
- Nathan K. Johnson-McDaniel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5357-9480)
- Eugenio Bianchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7847-9929)
- Vaishak Prasad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6712-2457)
- B. S. Sathyaprakash (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3845-7586)
- Monica Rincon-Ramirez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1836-9775)
Institutions
- Twitter (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- International Journal of Modern Physics D
- Published
- 2026-07-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218271826410130
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00