Claudio Cremaschini, Ramesh Radhakrishnan, Gerald Cleaver
A novel theoretical study of Boltzmann-Shannon entropy arising in information-statistic theory applied to black-hole physics is proposed. The invariant setting implemented is represented by the manifestly-covariant quantum-gravity theory expressed in canonical Hamiltonian form. In such a framework the appropriate statistical interpretation relies on the configuration-space quantum expectation value of physical observables over the 4- scalar quantum-gravity probability density function (PDF). A representation for the black-hole Boltzmann-Shannon entropy is obtained for a Gaussian PDF profile and by establishing simultaneously a relationship between the black-hole invariant energy-content and the mean value of the quantum-gravity nonlinear Bohm potential. This yields a non-trivial functional dependence of the Boltzmann-Shannon entropy on the black-hole surface area, to be interpreted as a quantum statistical entropy counting black-hole bulk quantum-gravity states. The mathematical setting is shown to preserve manifest covariance and be self-contained within quantum-gravity realm. Comparisons with literature treatments dealing with thermodynamic or kinetic-statistical entropies that lead to the Bekenstein-Hawking black-hole surface entropy linear relation or its proposed quantum modifications are discussed.