CalTech BH answer contradicts Hawking's

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the black hole information paradox, specifically examining recent claims made by researchers from CalTech and Jet Propulsion Lab regarding the fate of information as particles approach the event horizon of a black hole. Participants explore various theoretical resolutions to the paradox, including those proposed by Stephen Hawking and others, while expressing differing views on the implications of these theories.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants highlight a paper by Adami and Ver Steeg that suggests particles falling into a black hole become indistinguishable, leading to the loss of information except for mass, spin, and charge, which contradicts Hawking's view that information is not destroyed.
  • Others note that the authors of the paper imply that emissions are not purely thermal, suggesting that some information can be transmitted before particles cross the event horizon.
  • A participant clarifies that according to the authors, while particles cannot send information after reaching the event horizon, they can emit information just before crossing it, resulting in non-thermal emissions superimposed on Hawking radiation.
  • Some participants express a preference for the Gambini Porto Pullin "Realistic Clock" solution, which posits that information is lost, contrasting with other theories that suggest information is preserved in some form.
  • Samir Mathur's fuzzball theory is mentioned as another competing model in the discussion of the information paradox.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express multiple competing views regarding the fate of information in black holes, with no consensus reached on which model is correct or preferable.

Contextual Notes

The discussion reflects ongoing debates in theoretical physics regarding the nature of information and its preservation or loss in black holes, highlighting the complexity and ambiguity in current models and interpretations.

marcus
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Two guys at CalTech and Jet Propulsion Lab just posted
http://arxiv.org/gr-qc/0407090

which appears to take care of the BH information paradox
by analyzing how particles just about to disappear across the
event horizon can signal their essential information as they fall in
(a swan song, his entire life flashed before his eyes...)

so while Hawking says the info falls into the hole but is not destroyed and eventually (in a way he did not specify) percolates out
these people explicitly say that once particles fall into the hole they become indistinguishable and all informtion (except name rank serial number) is lost (sorry, except for mass, spin, and charge)
so they contradict Hawking's resolution of the paradox
and resolve it in their own comparatively concrete reasonable fashion

Black holes conserve information in curved-space quantum field theory
Christoph Adami, Greg L. Ver Steeg
4 pages, 2 figures

selfAdjoint has remarked on the strange coincidence that within the short space of a couple of months we see a handful of different resolutions of
this paradox----all incidentally contradicting each other


Personally I'm partial to Gambini Porto Pullin which uses a realistic material clock to define time---eschewing idealized time

but there is also Hawking

and these people: Adami/Ver Steeg

and who else did we hear about?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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marcus said:
Two guys at CalTech and Jet Propulsion Lab just posted
http://arxiv.org/gr-qc/0407090

which appears to take care of the BH information paradox
by analyzing how particles just about to disappear across the
event horizon can signal their essential information as they fall in
(a swan song, his entire life flashed before his eyes...)

so while Hawking says the info falls into the hole but is not destroyed and eventually (in a way he did not specify) percolates out
these people explicitly say that particles falling into the hole become indistinguishable and all informtion (except name rank serial number) is lost (sorry, except for mass, spin, and charge)
so they contradict Hawking's resolution of the paradox
and resolve it in their own comparatively concrete reasonable fashion
Hi, Marcus!
Did I miss something critical in the paper? I understood them to say that there must be emissions that are not purely thermal, which implies that some information can be transmitted.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
turbo-1 said:
Hi, Marcus!
Did I miss something critical in the paper? I understood them to say that there must be emissions that are not purely thermal, which implies that some information can be transmitted.

I don't think you missed anything. There must have been some ambiguity in what I said. What I meant to say was this: according to these authors, once a particle has reached the event horizon it cannot telegraph anything about itself to the outside. But no information is lost because:

Just before it gets to the brink it can send out information about itself (HELLLP! :eek: ) and this shows up as non-thermal emissions superimposed on the noise background of hawking radiation.

I tried to edit my post to make that message clearer.
The clearest depiction of their idea is in the two sidebyside Penrose diagrams in their Figure 1. You see the righthand Penrose diagram with the three wiggly lines showing radiation?

The radiation is not coming from the event horizon or from inside the event horizon. The radiation is coming from just outside the event horizon, from the particles alpha, beta, and gamma, just before they plunge into the hole (and any special information about them is destroyed).

I don't know how their paper will finally stack up, but they seem to me to have their own solution and put their own distinct twist on the story that we ought to register.

the only solution of the paradox I know of (at least that came out in the past few months) that actually says the information is lost is the Gambini Porto Pullin "Realistic Clock" solution---that's one i really like a lot :smile:
 
meteor said:

Oh god yes, I was forgetting Samir Mathur and his fuzzballs!
And PF member Gokul, an active contributor to the Brain Teasers and to Evo's general discussion, has an office three doors down the hall from Samir so he is practically family...
 

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