Essential and inessential features of Hawking radiation

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Abstract
There are numerous derivations of the Hawking effect available in the literature. They emphasise different features of the process, and sometimes make markedly different physical assumptions. This article presents a ``minimalist'' argument, and strips the derivation of as much excess baggage as possible. All that is really necessary is quantum physics plus a slowly evolving future apparent horizon (*not* an event horizon). In particular, neither the Einstein equations nor Bekenstein entropy are necessary (nor even useful) in deriving Hawking radiation.

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