Black Holes: Thermodynamics, Information, and Firewalls

This book reflects the resurgence of interest in the quantum properties of black holes, culminating most recently in controversial discussions about firewalls. On the thermodynamic side, it describes how new developments allowed the inclusion of pressure/volume terms in the first law, leading to a new understanding of black holes as chemical systems, experiencing novel phenomena such as triple points and reentrant phase transitions. On the quantum-information side, the reader learns how bas...