Black Hole Area Quantization rule from Black Hole Mass Fluctuations

Abstract: We calculate the black hole mass distribution function that follows from the random emission of quanta by Hawking radiation and with this function we calculate the black hole mass fluctuation. From a complete different perspective we regard the black hole as quantum mechanical system with a quantized event horizon area and transition probabilities among the various energy levels and then calculate the mass dispersion. It turns out that there is a perfect agreement between the statistical and the microscopic calculations if and only if the area spectrum is linear. Accordingly, the quantum mechanical properties of the black hole which are supposedly relevant only at Planckian scales do leave an imprint in the black hole mass dispersion at much larger scales where gravity can be dealt classically, as one would expect from the correspondence principle.