  The statistical response of a Kerr black hole to incoming quantum radiation
has heretofore been studied by the methods of maximum entropy or quantum field
theory in curved spacetime. Neither approach pretends to take into account the
quantum structure of the black hole itself. To address this last issue we
calculate here the conditional probability distribution associated with the
hole's response by assuming that the horizon area has a discrete quantum
spectrum, and that its quantum evolution corresponds to jumps between adjacent
area eigenvalues, possibly occurring in series, with consequent emission or
absorption of quanta, possibly in the same mode. This "atomic" model of the
black hole is implemented in two different ways and recovers the previously
calculated radiation statistics in both cases. The corresponding conditional
probably distribution is here expressed in closed form in terms of an
hypergeometric function.
