Entropy from conformal field theory at Killing horizons

On a manifold with a boundary, the constraint algebra of general relativity may acquire a central extension, which can be computed using covariant phase space techniques. When the boundary is a (local) Killing horizon, a natural set of boundary conditions leads to a Virasoro subalgebra with a calculable central charge. Conformal field theory methods may then be used to determine the density of states at the boundary. I consider a number of cases-black holes, Rindler space, de Sitter space, Taub-NUT and Taub-bolt spaces and dilaton gravity-and show that the resulting density of states yields the expected Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The statistical mechanics of black hole entropy may thus be fixed by symmetry arguments, independent of the details of quantum gravity.