Could black hole thermodynamics play a role in black hole mergers?

[2601.04379] Could black hole thermodynamics play a role in black hole mergers? Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology arXiv:2601.04379 (gr-qc) [Submitted on 7 Jan 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 15 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Could black hole thermodynamics play a role in black hole mergers? Authors: George Ruppeiner View a PDF of the paper titled Could black hole thermodynamics play a role in black hole mergers?, by George Ruppeiner View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: Gravitational waves detected from binary black hole mergers by the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA collaboration yield values for both the black hole remnant masses $M$ and spins $a$, with the $169$ spin values collected so far crowding significantly around their average $\bar{a}=0.6869\pm 0.0135$. Could this crowding relate directly to the Davies Point (DP) from black hole thermodynamics? The DP results from the Kerr-Newman black hole model, and has heat capacity diverging at $a=0.68125$, a value very close to the measured $\bar{a}$. In this paper I construct a consistent thermodynamic fluctuation theory for black holes and use it to write the thermodynamic curvature $R$. $R$ immediately yields the correlation length $\xi$. $\xi$ is found to diverge at the DP, and I propose that this divergence brings on critical slowing down that retards the emission of gravitational waves. The spin drifts of the remnants slow in proportion, leading to a piling up of spin value at the DP, as observed. If correct, my work would combine general relativity with black hole thermodynamics in an observational setting. Comments: 17 pages, 11 figures Subjects: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc) Cite as: arXiv:2601.04379 [gr-qc] (or arXiv:2601.04379v3 [gr-qc] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.04379 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: George Ruppeiner [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 7 Jan 2026 20:38:06 UTC (2,303 KB) [v2] Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:35:40 UTC (1,259 KB) [v3] Sat, 15 Aug 2026 02:20:28 UTC (1,356 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Could black hole thermodynamics play a role in black hole mergers?, by George Ruppeiner View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: gr-qc < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-01 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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