scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Topic

Black hole information paradox

About: Black hole information paradox is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1213 publications have been published within this topic receiving 43264 citations.


Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, it is shown that the ignorance principle holds for the quantum-mechanical evaporation of black holes, where the black hole creates particles in pairs, with one particle always falling into the hole and the other possibly escaping to infinity.
Abstract: The principle of equivalence, which says that gravity couples to the energy-momentum tensor of matter, and the quantum-mechanical requirement that energy should be positive imply that gravity is always attractive. This leads to singularities in any reasonable theory of gravitation. A singularity is a place where the classical concepts of space and time break down as do all the known laws of physics because they are all formulated on a classical space-time background. In this paper it is claimed that this breakdown is not merely a result of our ignorance of the correct theory but that it represents a fundamental limitation to our ability to predict the future, a limitation that is analogous but additional to the limitation imposed by the normal quantum-mechanical uncertainty principle. The new limitation arises because general relativity allows the causal structure of space-time to be very different from that of Minkowski space. The interaction region can be bounded not only by an initial surface on which data are given and a final surface on which measurements are made but also a "hidden surface" about which the observer has only limited information such as the mass, angular momentum, and charge. Concerning this hidden surface one has a "principle of ignorance": The surface emits with equal probability all configurations of particles compatible with the observers limited knowledge. It is shown that the ignorance principle holds for the quantum-mechanical evaporation of black holes: The black hole creates particles in pairs, with one particle always falling into the hole and the other possibly escaping to infinity. Because part of the information about the state of the system is lost down the hole, the final situation is represented by a density matrix rather than a pure quantum state. This means there is no $S$ matrix for the process of black-hole formation and evaporation. Instead one has to introduce a new operator, called the superscattering operator, which maps density matrices describing the initial situation to density matrices describing the final situation.

2,226 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A short and direct derivation of Hawking radiation as a tunneling process, based on particles in a dynamical geometry, respects conservation laws, but the exact spectrum is not precisely thermal.
Abstract: We present a short and direct derivation of Hawking radiation as a tunneling process, based on particles in a dynamical geometry. The imaginary part of the action for the classically forbidden process is related to the Boltzmann factor for emission at the Hawking temperature. Because the derivation respects conservation laws, the exact spectrum is not precisely thermal. We compare and contrast the problem of spontaneous emission of charged particles from a charged conductor.

1,980 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a dual non-perturbative description for maximally extended Schwarzschild anti-de-Sitter spacetimes is proposed, which involves two copies of the conformal field theory associated to the AdS spacetime and an initial entangled state.
Abstract: We propose a dual non-perturbative description for maximally extended Schwarzschild Anti-de-Sitter spacetimes. The description involves two copies of the conformal field theory associated to the AdS spacetime and an initial entangled state. In this context we also discuss a version of the information loss paradox and its resolution.

1,801 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the following three statements cannot all be true: (i) Hawking radiation is in a pure state, (ii) the information carried by the radiation is emitted from the region near the horizon, with low energy effective field theory valid beyond some microscopic distance from the horizon.
Abstract: We argue that the following three statements cannot all be true: (i) Hawking radiation is in a pure state, (ii) the information carried by the radiation is emitted from the region near the horizon, with low energy effective field theory valid beyond some microscopic distance from the horizon, and (iii) the infalling observer encounters nothing unusual at the horizon. Perhaps the most conservative resolution is that the infalling observer burns up at the horizon. Alternatives would seem to require novel dynamics that nevertheless cause notable violations of semiclassical physics at macroscopic distances from the horizon.

1,476 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Three postulates asserting the validity of conventional quantum theory, semiclassical general relativity, and the statistical basis for thermodynamics are introduced as a foundation for the study of black-hole evolution are explained.
Abstract: Three postulates asserting the validity of conventional quantum theory, semiclassical general relativity, and the statistical basis for thermodynamics are introduced as a foundation for the study of black-hole evolution. We explain how these postulates may be implemented in a "stretched horizon" or membrane description of the black hole, appropriate to a distant observer. The technical analysis is illustrated in the simplified context of (1+1)-dimensional dilaton gravity. Our postulates imply that the dissipative properties of the stretched horizon arise from a course graining of microphysical degrees of freedom that the horizon must possess. A principle of black-hole complementarity is advocated. The overall viewpiont is similar to that poineered by 't Hooft but the detailed implementation is different.

1,186 citations


Network Information
Related Topics (5)
Gauge theory
38.7K papers, 1.2M citations
89% related
Supersymmetry
29.7K papers, 1.1M citations
88% related
Quark
43.3K papers, 951K citations
83% related
Higgs boson
33.6K papers, 961.7K citations
83% related
Quantum chromodynamics
47.1K papers, 1.2M citations
83% related
Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
202319
202253
202172
202088
201961
201860