MICROCANONICAL FUNCTIONAL INTEGRAL FOR THE GRAVITATIONAL-FIELD

The gravitational field in a spatially finite region is described as a microcanonical system. The density of states nu is expressed formally as a functional integral over Lorentzian metrics and is a functional of the geometrical boundary data that are fixed in the corresponding action. These boundary data are the thermodynamical extensive variables, including the energy and angular momentum of the system. When the boundary data are chosen such that the system is described semiclassically by any real stationary axisymmetric black hole, then in this same approximation Inv is shown to equal 1/4 the area of the black-hole event horizon. The canonical and grand canonical partition functions are obtained by integral transforms of nu that lead to ''imaginary-time'' functional integrals. A general form of the first law of thermodynamics for stationary black holes is derived. For the simpler case of nonrelativistic mechanics, the density of states is expressed as a real-time functional integral and then used to deduce Feynman's imaginary-time functional integral for the canonical partition function.