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information loss in black holes

 
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Jun22-04, 05:02 PM   #1
 

information loss in black holes


<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>If I burned a book the information in it would be lost forever with\nrespect to all possible observers.This is because the burning of the\nbook is about as irreversible a process as can be imagined.Processes\nin which information is retrieved depend on the idea of reversibility:\nI can put information on a hard disc of a computer and take it off; I\ncan put a book on a shelf and take it off the shelf etc.So if\ninformation which has gone into a black hole is to be retrieved the\nprocess by which the information went into the black hole must have\nsomething inherently reversible about it.Suppose a book fell into a\nblack hole.I could not physically intervene to get it out again - as I\ncould in the case of a book on a shelf - I could not grab the book and\nreverse the path it has taken. And just as I wouldn\'t expect a book on\na shelf to spontaneously jump off the shelf into my hands, I wouldn\'t\nexpect the black hole to spontaneously yield the information in the\nbook in the form of radiation.\nBut all my ideas of the likelihood of processes occurring is based on\nmy experience of living outside a black hole.If I could live inside a\nblack hole\n( where there is no three space) would I reach the same conclusion\nabout the loss of information - would I conclude that information that\ncomes into the hole is destroyed irreversibly?\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>If I burned a book the information in it would be lost forever with
respect to all possible observers.This is because the burning of the
book is about as irreversible a process as can be imagined.Processes
in which information is retrieved depend on the idea of reversibility:
I can put information on a hard disc of a computer and take it off; I
can put a book on a shelf and take it off the shelf etc.So if
information which has gone into a black hole is to be retrieved the
process by which the information went into the black hole must have
something inherently reversible about it.Suppose a book fell into a
black hole.I could not physically intervene to get it out again - as I
could in the case of a book on a shelf - I could not grab the book and
reverse the path it has taken. And just as I wouldn't expect a book on
a shelf to spontaneously jump off the shelf into my hands, I wouldn't
expect the black hole to spontaneously yield the information in the
book in the form of radiation.
But all my ideas of the likelihood of processes occurring is based on
my experience of living outside a black hole.If I could live inside a
black hole
( where there is no three space) would I reach the same conclusion
about the loss of information - would I conclude that information that
comes into the hole is destroyed irreversibly?

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Jun24-04, 06:31 AM   #2
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\nBlack holes can have angular momentum, mass and charge.It is often\npointed out that these three variables on their own cannot reflect the\nlarge number of ways in which a large number of unique black holes\ncould be made.\nBut how do we know that black holes are made in lots of different\nways?\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>Black holes can have angular momentum, mass and charge.It is often
pointed out that these three variables on their own cannot reflect the
large number of ways in which a large number of unique black holes
could be made.
But how do we know that black holes are made in lots of different
ways?
Jun24-04, 06:31 AM   #3
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, alistair wrote:\n\n&gt; But all my ideas of the likelihood of processes occurring is based on my\n&gt; experience of living outside a black hole. If I could live inside a\n&gt; black hole (where there is no three space)\n\nI don\'t know what you mean by this, but it sounds like a misconception.\n\nHere is some information which may help to clarify the situation:\n\n1. Conventional Lorentzian spacetimes M are everywhere four dimensional,\nwhich means that it in each local neighborhood U of an event P (think of a\nsmall four dimensional "box" containing P--- if you like, you can now\ndistort the "box" diffeomorphically without moving P, and call the result\na new neighborhood U\' of P), we can find an infinite variety of\n"slicings". Such a slicing consists of a family of three dimensional\nspacelike "hypersurfaces" which fill up the "box", such that no two\nhypersurfaces intersect one another. IOW: the hypersurfaces are the level\nsurfaces of an appropriate function f:U--&gt;R.\n\n2. A spacetime containing an isolated black hole has (with some additional\nassumptions which need not concern us) "interior" and "exterior"\nregions. These are four dimensional pieces, separated by the "event\nhorizon". (Describing the "dimension" of the horizon itself, or rather\nits "world sheet", gets us into further technical issues which I\'ll ignore\nhere).\n\n3. In particular, events P in the interior region admit infinitely many\nthree dimensional spacelike hypersurfaces containing P. In a small enough\nneighborhood of P, each of these corresponds (many-one), approximately, to\na "local Lorentz frame" at P.\n\n4. Physically, this means that any observer in the interior region will\nexperience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just observe\nsome pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical\neffects, etc.\n\n"T. Essel" (hiding somewhere in cyberspace)\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>On Tue, 22 Jun 2004, alistair wrote:

> But all my ideas of the likelihood of processes occurring is based on my
> experience of living outside a black hole. If I could live inside a
> black hole (where there is no three space)


I don't know what you mean by this, but it sounds like a misconception.

Here is some information which may help to clarify the situation:

1. Conventional Lorentzian spacetimes M are everywhere four dimensional,
which means that it in each local neighborhood U of an event P (think of a
small four dimensional "box" containing P--- if you like, you can now
distort the "box" diffeomorphically without moving P, and call the result
a new neighborhood U' of P), we can find an infinite variety of
"slicings". Such a slicing consists of a family of three dimensional
spacelike "hypersurfaces" which fill up the "box", such that no two
hypersurfaces intersect one another. IOW: the hypersurfaces are the level
surfaces of an appropriate function f:U-->R.

2. A spacetime containing an isolated black hole has (with some additional
assumptions which need not concern us) "interior" and "exterior"
regions. These are four dimensional pieces, separated by the "event
horizon". (Describing the "dimension" of the horizon itself, or rather
its "world sheet", gets us into further technical issues which I'll ignore
here).

3. In particular, events P in the interior region admit infinitely many
three dimensional spacelike hypersurfaces containing P. In a small enough
neighborhood of P, each of these corresponds (many-one), approximately, to
a "local Lorentz frame" at P.

4. Physically, this means that any observer in the interior region will
experience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just observe
some pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical
effects, etc.

"T. Essel" (hiding somewhere in cyberspace)
Jun24-04, 09:32 AM   #4
 

information loss in black holes


<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\nTESSEL@TUM.BOT replied to ALISTAIR with respect to the loss of\ninformation in black holes:\n\n&gt;any observer in the interior region will\n&gt;experience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just\nobserve\n&gt;some pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical\n&gt;effects, etc.\n\nALISTAIR writes:\n\nIf I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and\npulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black\nhole\'s event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet\nof paper apart with my hands\nwill irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black\nhole\'s tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means\ninformation is lost forever in a black hole?\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>TESSEL@TUM.BOT replied to ALISTAIR with respect to the loss of
information in black holes:

>any observer in the interior region will
>experience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just

observe
>some pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical
>effects, etc.


ALISTAIR writes:

If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and
pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black
hole's event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet
of paper apart with my hands
will irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black
hole's tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means
information is lost forever in a black hole?
Jun28-04, 12:10 PM   #5
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>Alistair asked about information loss; his post included the dubious claim\n\n&gt; If I could live inside a black hole (where there is no three space)\n\nI replied only to correct this apparent misconception, saying in part:\n\n&gt; &gt;any observer in the interior region will experience three dimensional\n&gt; &gt;space just like we do, they will just observe some pretty extreme\n&gt; &gt;physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical effects, etc.\n&gt;\n&gt; ALISTAIR writes:\n&gt;\n&gt; If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and\n&gt; pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black\n&gt; hole\'s event horizon would do to the sheet of paper?\n\nSome relevant points:\n\n1. In gtr--- and in any other theory which has a chance of comparing\nfairly well with observation/experiment, including good old Newtonian\ngravitation--- any gravitational field will produce tidal forces on\ninfalling objects (even free falling objects). Indeed, in gtr, one could\neven say that describing the tidal forces experienced by arbitrarily\nfalling small objects is exactly the same thing as describing "the\ngravitational field".\n\n2. Small falling objects near a -compact massive object- will experience\ntidal forces having a "Coulomb character". This means that they will be\n-stretched- along the direction of fastest increase of the strength of the\nfield (i.e. the direction pointing toward the compact object) and also\n-compressed- transversely. In particular, a sheet of paper falling\nthrough a Coulomb tidal force field will torn apart most efficiently if it\nis oriented so that a diagonal drawn on the sheet points in the direction\nof fastest increase of the magnitude of the field (i.e. points toward the\ncompact object). The nature of this tearing is not much different from\nwhat you will observe if you hold a piece of paper by the tips and pull\nvery hard. As a little experimentation quickly suggests, if you could\nobserve a sheet of paper falling in a really strong Coulomb tidal force\nfield, you would expect to see "transverse crumpling" long before you see\n"radial tearing"!\n\n3. It doesn\'t matter all that much precisely how your object is "falling",\ne.g. an -orbiting- object will also experience tidal forces with a Coulomb\ncharacter similar to those experienced by a -radially infalling- object,\nalthough the details may differ slightly, at least in relativistic\ngravitation theories like gtr. (In past posts, I\'ve compared in detail\nthe tidal forces for small objects in stable circular orbits around a\nSchwarzschild hole with the tidal forces on small objects which are\nradially and freely falling into the hole.)\n\n4. In any reasonable gravitation theory--- including good old Newtonian\ngravitation--- of two equally massive objects, the more compact one will\nallow for stronger fields in its -exterior- simply because falling objects\ncan approach more closely before reaching the "surface" (if any). So in a\nsense, the strong gravitational fields experienced (according to gtr) near\na neutron star are due to the fact that one can approach much more closely\nto a stellar mass object without running into anything than one can for an\nordinary star. Similarly, of course, for stellar mass black holes---\nwhich are not that much more compact than neutron stars, incidentally! So\nnone of this depends upon whether your compact massive object is "made\nof", in particular, whether it is some kind of star or black hole, or even\nupon which gravitation theory you are using to model the situation, as\nlong as your theory has the correct Newtonian limit.\n\n5. Tidal forces are -local-; they can be measured within a small idealized\n"laboratory" without "looking out the window". For example, in (2), in\nprinciple one can determine the "direction of fastest increase of\nmagnitude of tidal forces" without looking out the window, so this is a\nlocal concept. Contrast this with the "direction pointing at the massive\ncompact object which is the source of the field"--- determining this\ndirection presumably requires looking out the window! In this case, these\nphrases describe two (not entirely well-defined) methods (one local and\none not) for determining a certain spatial direction somewhere outside a\nSchwarzschild hole. But I am certainly not claiming that every local\nconcept can be alternatively expressed in nonlocal terms, or vice versa.\nIn particular, "event horizon" is a -global- concept which we should not\nexpect to be expressible in local terms. (If this seems confusing, the\nreason is probably that the "local/global distinction" is difficult to\nreally explain without first explaining certain concepts from manifold\ntheory.)\n\n6. Since "tidal force" is a -local- concept, but "event horizon" is a\n-global- concept, the nature of tidal forces must be identical on either\nside of any horizon. This is not invalidated by the fact that deep inside\nthe horizon of some black hole solutions admitted by the EFE (Einstein\nfield equation), the tidal forces measured by at least some observers may\nassume a "non-Coulomb character".\n\n7. I see now I missed another possible objection to the phrase quoted\nabove--- you can "live" inside a Schwarzschild hole for only a limited\ntime, since (according to gtr) you cannot possibly avoid falling further\nin, and in fact there is a specific upper bound to your remaining proper\nlifetime. It is true that for more exotic black hole solutions of the\nEFE, it is in principle possible for at least some observers to avoid\nstriking a "strong scalar curvature singularity", but this may be an\nartifact of assuming too much symmetry or of neglecting the effect of\ninfalling radiation and "stuff". (This question is a whole \'nother can of\nworms, however--- the true nature of the interior of "generic" black hole\nsolutions in gtr remains very vexed, and this problem is the focus of a\ngood deal of current research. In various previous posts I have said much\nmore about this.)\n\n8. All the above concerns purely classical gravitation physics; no\nstatistical, thermodynamical, or quantum mechanical ideas are involved\n(although I did make some modest nongravitational assumptions concerning\nhow material like paper responds to tensile and compressive forces). The\n"black hole information loss problem", however, concerns quantum field\ntheory as well as gravitation physics, in (apparently) an essential way.\nFurthermore, the (apparently) relevant notions of "information/entropy"\nemploy thermodynamical or statistical concepts.\n\n&gt; Pulling a sheet of paper apart with my hands will irreversibly destroy\n&gt; information on the sheet so if a black hole\'s tidal forces tears the\n&gt; sheet apart then surely this means information is lost forever in a\n&gt; black hole?\n\nYou are trying to invoke an alleged "destruction" of some kind of\n"information" which you think should happen when you shred paper, but even\nif you can invent precise mathematical definitions which capture this\nintuition, I doubt your notion of "shredable information" will turn out to\nbe readily comparable with the kind(s) of "information" physicists have in\nmind when they discuss the "information loss problem".\n\nBut again, I\'ll leave it to others to discuss the "information loss\nproblem" itself; I have only been attempting to correct various apparent\nmisconceptions concerning classical gravitation physics.\n\n"T. Essel" (hiding somewhere in cyberspace)\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>Alistair asked about information loss; his post included the dubious claim

> If I could live inside a black hole (where there is no three space)


I replied only to correct this apparent misconception, saying in part:

> >any observer in the interior region will experience three dimensional
> >space just like we do, they will just observe some pretty extreme
> >physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical effects, etc.

>
> ALISTAIR writes:
>
> If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and
> pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black
> hole's event horizon would do to the sheet of paper?


Some relevant points:

1. In gtr--- and in any other theory which has a chance of comparing
fairly well with observation/experiment, including good old Newtonian
gravitation--- any gravitational field will produce tidal forces on
infalling objects (even free falling objects). Indeed, in gtr, one could
even say that describing the tidal forces experienced by arbitrarily
falling small objects is exactly the same thing as describing "the
gravitational field".

2. Small falling objects near a -compact massive object- will experience
tidal forces having a "Coulomb character". This means that they will be
-stretched- along the direction of fastest increase of the strength of the
field (i.e. the direction pointing toward the compact object) and also
-compressed- transversely. In particular, a sheet of paper falling
through a Coulomb tidal force field will torn apart most efficiently if it
is oriented so that a diagonal drawn on the sheet points in the direction
of fastest increase of the magnitude of the field (i.e. points toward the
compact object). The nature of this tearing is not much different from
what you will observe if you hold a piece of paper by the tips and pull
very hard. As a little experimentation quickly suggests, if you could
observe a sheet of paper falling in a really strong Coulomb tidal force
field, you would expect to see "transverse crumpling" long before you see
"radial tearing"!

3. It doesn't matter all that much precisely how your object is "falling",
e.g. an -orbiting- object will also experience tidal forces with a Coulomb
character similar to those experienced by a -radially infalling- object,
although the details may differ slightly, at least in relativistic
gravitation theories like gtr. (In past posts, I've compared in detail
the tidal forces for small objects in stable circular orbits around a
Schwarzschild hole with the tidal forces on small objects which are
radially and freely falling into the hole.)

4. In any reasonable gravitation theory--- including good old Newtonian
gravitation--- of two equally massive objects, the more compact one will
allow for stronger fields in its -exterior- simply because falling objects
can approach more closely before reaching the "surface" (if any). So in a
sense, the strong gravitational fields experienced (according to gtr) near
a neutron star are due to the fact that one can approach much more closely
to a stellar mass object without running into anything than one can for an
ordinary star. Similarly, of course, for stellar mass black holes---
which are not that much more compact than neutron stars, incidentally! So
none of this depends upon whether your compact massive object is "made
of", in particular, whether it is some kind of star or black hole, or even
upon which gravitation theory you are using to model the situation, as
long as your theory has the correct Newtonian limit.

5. Tidal forces are -local-; they can be measured within a small idealized
"laboratory" without "looking out the window". For example, in (2), in
principle one can determine the "direction of fastest increase of
magnitude of tidal forces" without looking out the window, so this is a
local concept. Contrast this with the "direction pointing at the massive
compact object which is the source of the field"--- determining this
direction presumably requires looking out the window! In this case, these
phrases describe two (not entirely well-defined) methods (one local and
one not) for determining a certain spatial direction somewhere outside a
Schwarzschild hole. But I am certainly not claiming that every local
concept can be alternatively expressed in nonlocal terms, or vice versa.
In particular, "event horizon" is a -global- concept which we should not
expect to be expressible in local terms. (If this seems confusing, the
reason is probably that the "local/global distinction" is difficult to
really explain without first explaining certain concepts from manifold
theory.)

6. Since "tidal force" is a -local- concept, but "event horizon" is a
-global- concept, the nature of tidal forces must be identical on either
side of any horizon. This is not invalidated by the fact that deep inside
the horizon of some black hole solutions admitted by the EFE (Einstein
field equation), the tidal forces measured by at least some observers may
assume a "non-Coulomb character".

7. I see now I missed another possible objection to the phrase quoted
above--- you can "live" inside a Schwarzschild hole for only a limited
time, since (according to gtr) you cannot possibly avoid falling further
in, and in fact there is a specific upper bound to your remaining proper
lifetime. It is true that for more exotic black hole solutions of the
EFE, it is in principle possible for at least some observers to avoid
striking a "strong scalar curvature singularity", but this may be an
artifact of assuming too much symmetry or of neglecting the effect of
infalling radiation and "stuff". (This question is a whole 'nother can of
worms, however--- the true nature of the interior of "generic" black hole
solutions in gtr remains very vexed, and this problem is the focus of a
good deal of current research. In various previous posts I have said much
more about this.)

8. All the above concerns purely classical gravitation physics; no
statistical, thermodynamical, or quantum mechanical ideas are involved
(although I did make some modest nongravitational assumptions concerning
how material like paper responds to tensile and compressive forces). The
"black hole information loss problem", however, concerns quantum field
theory as well as gravitation physics, in (apparently) an essential way.
Furthermore, the (apparently) relevant notions of "information/entropy"
employ thermodynamical or statistical concepts.

> Pulling a sheet of paper apart with my hands will irreversibly destroy
> information on the sheet so if a black hole's tidal forces tears the
> sheet apart then surely this means information is lost forever in a
> black hole?


You are trying to invoke an alleged "destruction" of some kind of
"information" which you think should happen when you shred paper, but even
if you can invent precise mathematical definitions which capture this
intuition, I doubt your notion of "shredable information" will turn out to
be readily comparable with the kind(s) of "information" physicists have in
mind when they discuss the "information loss problem".

But again, I'll leave it to others to discuss the "information loss
problem" itself; I have only been attempting to correct various apparent
misconceptions concerning classical gravitation physics.

"T. Essel" (hiding somewhere in cyberspace)
Jun28-04, 12:10 PM   #6
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>\n\n\n\nalistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk (alistair) wrote in message news:&lt;861c1b21.0406240621.244067b7@posting.google.com&gt;...\n&gt; TESSEL@TUM.BOT replied to ALISTAIR with respect to the loss of\n&gt; information in black holes:\n&gt;\n&gt; &gt;any observer in the interior region will\n&gt; &gt;experience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just\n&gt; observe\n&gt; &gt;some pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical\n&gt; &gt;effects, etc.\n&gt;\n&gt; ALISTAIR writes:\n&gt;\n&gt; If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and\n&gt; pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black\n&gt; hole\'s event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet\n&gt; of paper apart with my hands\n&gt; will irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black\n&gt; hole\'s tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means\n&gt; information is lost forever in a black hole?\n\n\nWhen people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are\nreferring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would\nhave no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.\n\nDavid\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk (alistair) wrote in message news:<861c1b21.0406240621.244067b7@p...google.com>...
> TESSEL@TUM.BOT replied to ALISTAIR with respect to the loss of
> information in black holes:
>
> >any observer in the interior region will
> >experience three dimensional space just like we do, they will just

> observe
> >some pretty extreme physics like large tidal stresses, weird optical
> >effects, etc.

>
> ALISTAIR writes:
>
> If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and
> pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black
> hole's event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet
> of paper apart with my hands
> will irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black
> hole's tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means
> information is lost forever in a black hole?



When people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are
referring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would
have no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.

David
Jun29-04, 04:29 PM   #7
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>"alistair" &lt;alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk&gt; schrieb im Newsbeitrag\nnews:861c1b21.0406240621.244067b7@posting.google.com...\n\ n&gt; ALISTAIR writes:\n&gt;\n&gt; If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and\n&gt; pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black\n&gt; hole\'s event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet\n&gt; of paper apart with my hands\n&gt; will irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black\n&gt; hole\'s tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means\n&gt; information is lost forever in a black hole?\n\nNo, this is not the "information loss problem" of black holes. Pulling stuff\napart doesn\'t have anything in particular to do with black holes, obviously,\nand is not related to information loss (non-unitarity). The apparent problem\nwith black holes is rather that stuff "falls inside" and after a long-long\ntime thermal Hawking radiation escapes. There would be a problem if in this\n(possibly overly naive) scenario the Hawking radiation carried no signature\nof the original stuff that fell into the black hole, roughly.\n\n\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>"alistair" <alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:861c1b21.0406240621.244067b7@posting.google.com...

> ALISTAIR writes:
>
> If I put a sheet of paper in my hands with writing on it, and
> pulled it until it ripped, is this what tidal forces inside a black
> hole's event horizon would do to the sheet of paper? Pulling a sheet
> of paper apart with my hands
> will irreversibly destroy information on the sheet so if a black
> hole's tidal forces tears the sheet apart then surely this means
> information is lost forever in a black hole?


No, this is not the "information loss problem" of black holes. Pulling stuff
apart doesn't have anything in particular to do with black holes, obviously,
and is not related to information loss (non-unitarity). The apparent problem
with black holes is rather that stuff "falls inside" and after a long-long
time thermal Hawking radiation escapes. There would be a problem if in this
(possibly overly naive) scenario the Hawking radiation carried no signature
of the original stuff that fell into the black hole, roughly.



Jun29-04, 04:32 PM   #8
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent\nof the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is\na problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in\ndifferent ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it\nbelieved that information is lost?\nOne can say " information disppears from the universe into a black\nhole" but isn\'t the black hole part of the universe?\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent
of the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is
a problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in
different ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it
believed that information is lost?
One can say " information disppears from the universe into a black
hole" but isn't the black hole part of the universe?

Jun29-04, 04:34 PM   #9
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk (alistair) wrote in message news:&lt;861c1b21.0406220844.2054bbdc@posting.google.com&gt;...\n&gt; If I burned a book the information in it would be lost forever with\n&gt; respect to all possible observers.This is because the burning of the\n&gt; book is about as irreversible a process as can be imagined.\n\nExcept that an all knowing Laplace\'s demon could look at the state of\nthe universe at a later stage, then reconstruct the book using the\nreversibility of the laws of physics. The question is whether\ndropping something into a black hole is more of an irreversible\nprocess than the rest of physics.\n\nThe paradox here is that although we think of the second law of\nthermodynamics as causing decay and information loss, at the\nmicroscopic scale the law rests on the fact that information is never\ntruly lost - if a Maxwell\'s demon could lose information (say by\ndropping it into a black hole) then he would be able to overcome the\nsecond law.\n\nStephen Lee\nwww.chronon.org\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk (alistair) wrote in message news:<861c1b21.0406220844.2054bbdc@p...google.com>...
> If I burned a book the information in it would be lost forever with
> respect to all possible observers.This is because the burning of the
> book is about as irreversible a process as can be imagined.


Except that an all knowing Laplace's demon could look at the state of
the universe at a later stage, then reconstruct the book using the
reversibility of the laws of physics. The question is whether
dropping something into a black hole is more of an irreversible
process than the rest of physics.

The paradox here is that although we think of the second law of
thermodynamics as causing decay and information loss, at the
microscopic scale the law rests on the fact that information is never
truly lost - if a Maxwell's demon could lose information (say by
dropping it into a black hole) then he would be able to overcome the
second law.

Stephen Lee
www.chronon.org

Jun29-04, 04:40 PM   #10
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>When information is erased entropy increases (e.g. book burning).\nSo if the area of the event horizon of a black hole ( which gets\nbigger with increasing entropy) increases when a book falls into the\nblack hole, does this mean that the information in the book has been\nerased?\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>When information is erased entropy increases (e.g. book burning).
So if the area of the event horizon of a black hole ( which gets
bigger with increasing entropy) increases when a book falls into the
black hole, does this mean that the information in the book has been
erased?

Jun29-04, 05:50 PM   #11
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>TESSEL@TUM.BOT said:\n\n&gt;The "black hole information loss problem", however, concerns quantum\nfield\n&gt;theory as well as gravitation physics, in (apparently) an essential\nway.\n\nALISTAIR writes:\n\nIsn\'t Quantum field theory invoked because of the possibility that\ninformation\n"leaks" out of the black hole in the hawking radiation?\n\nALISTAIR says in addition:\n\nA blank sheet of paper would increase the area of the event horizon\nand the increase in area would be associated with an increase in the\nentropy\nof the black hole.If I cut away bits of a heavier sheet to write some\nsentences,and the cut sheet had the same mass as before, the increase\nin area of the event horizon would be the same as before,and would not\nreflect the fact that the sheet carried information.\nI would have to conclude that, in fact, the area of the horizon does\nnot say anything about the information that went into a black hole and\nthat as far as black holes are concerned, entropy and information are\nnot linked.\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>TESSEL@TUM.BOT said:

>The "black hole information loss problem", however, concerns quantum

field
>theory as well as gravitation physics, in (apparently) an essential

way.

ALISTAIR writes:

Isn't Quantum field theory invoked because of the possibility that
information
"leaks" out of the black hole in the hawking radiation?

ALISTAIR says in addition:

A blank sheet of paper would increase the area of the event horizon
and the increase in area would be associated with an increase in the
entropy
of the black hole.If I cut away bits of a heavier sheet to write some
sentences,and the cut sheet had the same mass as before, the increase
in area of the event horizon would be the same as before,and would not
reflect the fact that the sheet carried information.
I would have to conclude that, in fact, the area of the horizon does
not say anything about the information that went into a black hole and
that as far as black holes are concerned, entropy and information are
not linked.

Jun29-04, 05:54 PM   #12
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>&gt; When people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are\n&gt; referring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would\n&gt; have no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.\n\nBut for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of time for\nthe paper to fall into the black hole. So it would seem the paradox\nnever happens. Or am I wrong?\n\nDaniel\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>> When people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are
> referring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would
> have no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.


But for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of time for
the paper to fall into the black hole. So it would seem the paradox
never happens. Or am I wrong?

Daniel

Jun29-04, 06:04 PM   #13
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>Urs Schreiber said:\n\n&gt;The apparent problem\n&gt;with black holes is rather that stuff "falls inside" and after a\nlong-long\n&gt;time thermal Hawking radiation escapes. There would be a problem if\nin this\n&gt;(possibly overly naive) scenario the Hawking radiation carried no\nsignature\n&lt;of the original stuff that fell into the black hole, roughly.\n\nAlistair writes:\n\nAs a black hole evaporates it will emit Hawking radiation and increase\nits temperature.A higher temperature is associated with a greater\nentropy.The entropy of the universe (of which the black hole is a\npart)thus increases\nwith time in keeping with the second law of thermodynamics.The black\nhole is under no further obligation to do more than this - it does not\nhave to leave a trace of the information contained in the masses it\nhas taken in.\n\nChronon:\n\n&gt;if a Maxwell\'s demon could lose information (say by\n&gt;dropping it into a black hole) then he would be able to overcome the\n&gt;second law.\n\n\nAlistair says:\n\n\nThe demon would have to expend energy to lose the information and this\nwould increase the entropy of the universe, so the second law would\nnot be broken.\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>Urs Schreiber said:

>The apparent problem
>with black holes is rather that stuff "falls inside" and after a

long-long
>time thermal Hawking radiation escapes. There would be a problem if

in this
>(possibly overly naive) scenario the Hawking radiation carried no

signature
<of the original stuff that fell into the black hole, roughly.

Alistair writes:

As a black hole evaporates it will emit Hawking radiation and increase
its temperature.A higher temperature is associated with a greater
entropy.The entropy of the universe (of which the black hole is a
part)thus increases
with time in keeping with the second law of thermodynamics.The black
hole is under no further obligation to do more than this [itex]- it[/itex] does not
have to leave a trace of the information contained in the masses it
has taken in.

Chronon:

>if a Maxwell's demon could lose information (say by
>dropping it into a black hole) then he would be able to overcome the
>second law.



Alistair says:


The demon would have to expend energy to lose the information and this
would increase the entropy of the universe, so the second law would
not be broken.

Jun30-04, 05:39 PM   #14
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>In article &lt;37d84b42.0406290104.3402b89f@posting.google.com&gt;,\ndaniel@elit.n et (Daniel Elander) wrote:\n\n&gt; &gt; When people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are\n&gt; &gt; referring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would\n&gt; &gt; have no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.\n&gt;\n&gt; But for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of time for\n&gt; the paper to fall into the black hole. So it would seem the paradox\n&gt; never happens. Or am I wrong?\n&gt;\n&gt; Daniel\n\nThe statement "for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of\ntime" for something to fall into a black hole is true in two senses, but\nyou have to look very carefully at what those statements are to see what\nthey tell you about information accessibility.\n\n(1) The first sense in which "for the outside observer it takes an\ninfinite amount of time" is purely a statement about coordinate systems.\nIn the Schwarzschild coordinates, t, r, phi and theta -- which become\nasymptotically close to ordinary polar coordinates in flat spacetime far\nfrom the black hole, and so in a sense might qualify as appropriate\ncoordinates for "an outside observer" -- the spacelike hypersurfaces of\nconstant t which begin anywhere outside the event horizon never actually\ncross it.\n\nFigure 9 in this article:\n\nhttp://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/FOUNDATIONS/03/found03.html#s8\n\nshows curves of constant t in a 2-d slice through the spacetime. These\ncurves never cross the horizon (r=2M), so by increasing the value of t\nyou can get closer to the horizon, but you can never actually pass\nthrough it.\n\nOK, but I can construct coordinates that do the same absurd thing in flat\nspacetime, so this doesn\'t really tell us much about the physics of black\nholes. I can make up coordinates which are sensible close to me, but\nhave the property that all the spacelike hypersurfaces that intersect my\nworld line never cross an arbitrary barrier, say 1 metre away from me.\nAnd as Figure 9 shows, it\'s not hard to find another sensible coordinate,\nt*, such that the hypersurfaces of constant t* do cross the black hole\'s\nhorizon.\n\n(2) The second sense in which "for the outside observer it takes an\ninfinite amount of time" for something to fall across the event horizon\nis that if you drop a flashing beacon into a black hole, and watch from a\nfixed distance away from the event horizon, there is no upper bound on\nhow long (according to your own watch) you continue to receive *some*\nlight from the beacon. Classically at least, the light becomes dimmed\nand red-shifted in an exponential decay, but it never strictly hits zero.\n\nHowever, note that:\n\n(a) if you count the flashes of the falling beacon, there is a finite\nnumber assigned to the last flash you will ever see from it. That last\nflash (assuming the beacon is "on" rather than "off" as it crosses the\nhorizon) reaches you over an unbounded time, but you still only ever get\nto see a finite portion of the beacon\'s history.\n\n(b) after you drop the beacon from a Schwarzschild coordinate of r, there\nis a finite time *for you*, T(r), after which it becomes physically\nimpossible for you to chase after the beacon and retrieve it (even if you\ncan tolerate arbitrarily large accelerations), or even to illuminate it\nwith a light source of your own. Once T(r) has elapsed, it doesn\'t\nmatter what you do, and it doesn\'t matter that you can still see the\nbeacon; for all practical purposes, it\'s lost to you.\n\nThe fact that you\'re receiving ever-dimmer light from the beacon for all\neternity just tells you that the last light from it as it crossed the\nhorizon is reaching you in a strange, drawn-out fashion.\n\nGreg Egan\n\nEmail address (remove name of animal and add standard punctuation):\ngregegan netspace zebra net au\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>In article <37d84b42.0406290104.3402b89f@posting.google.com>,
daniel@elit.net (Daniel Elander) wrote:

> > When people talk about information loss in a black hole, they are
> > referring to the fact that someone outside the event horizon would
> > have no way of knowing what is written on the piece of paper.

>
> But for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of time for
> the paper to fall into the black hole. So it would seem the paradox
> never happens. Or am I wrong?
>
> Daniel


The statement "for the outside observer it takes an infinite amount of
time" for something to fall into a black hole is true in two senses, but
you have to look very carefully at what those statements are to see what
they tell you about information accessibility.

(1) The first sense in which "for the outside observer it takes an
infinite amount of time" is purely a statement about coordinate systems.
In the Schwarzschild coordinates, t, [itex]r, \phi[/itex] and [itex]\theta --[/itex] which become
asymptotically close to ordinary polar coordinates in flat spacetime far
from the black hole, and so in a sense might qualify as appropriate
coordinates for "an outside observer" -- the spacelike hypersurfaces of
constant t which begin anywhere outside the event horizon never actually
cross it.

Figure 9 in this article:

http://gregegan.customer.netspace.ne...ound03.html#s8

shows curves of constant t in [itex]a 2-d[/itex] slice through the spacetime. These
curves never cross the horizon [itex](r=2M),[/itex] so by increasing the value of t
you can get closer to the horizon, but you can never actually pass
through it.

OK, but I can construct coordinates that do the same absurd thing in flat
spacetime, so this doesn't really tell us much about the physics of black
holes. I can make up coordinates which are sensible close to me, but
have the property that all the spacelike hypersurfaces that intersect my
world line never cross an arbitrary barrier, say 1 metre away from me.
And as Figure 9 shows, it's not hard to find another sensible coordinate,
t*, such that the hypersurfaces of constant t* do cross the black hole's
horizon.

(2) The second sense in which "for the outside observer it takes an
infinite amount of time" for something to fall across the event horizon
is that if you drop a flashing beacon into a black hole, and watch from a
fixed distance away from the event horizon, there is no upper bound on
how long (according to your own watch) you continue to receive *some*
light from the beacon. Classically at least, the light becomes dimmed
and red-shifted in an exponential decay, but it never strictly hits zero.

However, note that:

(a) if you count the flashes of the falling beacon, there is a finite
number assigned to the last flash you will ever see from it. That last
flash (assuming the beacon is "on" rather than "off" as it crosses the
horizon) reaches you over an unbounded time, but you still only ever get
to see a finite portion of the beacon's history.

(b) after you drop the beacon from a Schwarzschild coordinate of r, there
is a finite time [itex]*for you*, T(r),[/itex] after which it becomes physically
impossible for you to chase after the beacon and retrieve it (even if you
can tolerate arbitrarily large accelerations), or even to illuminate it
with a light source of your own. Once T(r) has elapsed, it doesn't
matter what you do, and it doesn't matter that you can still see the
beacon; for all practical purposes, it's lost to you.

The fact that you're receiving ever-dimmer light from the beacon for all
eternity just tells you that the last light from it as it crossed the
horizon is reaching you in a strange, drawn-out fashion.

Greg Egan

Email address (remove name of animal and add standard punctuation):
gregegan netspace zebra net au

Jun30-04, 05:41 PM   #15
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>"alistair" &lt;alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk&gt; wrote in message\nnews:861c1b21.0406240841.3f5890b0@posting.google.com...\n&gt; In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent\n&gt; of the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is\n&gt; a problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in\n&gt; different ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it\n&gt; believed that information is lost?\n&gt; One can say " information disppears from the universe into a black\n&gt; hole" but isn\'t the black hole part of the universe?\n&gt;\n\nI don\'t understand this. I tear out a page from Nature, and\nput it into my super-duper CIA designed paper shredder that\nshreds paper into atoms! Are you saying that I, theoretically,\ncould reconstruct that page?\n\n-- Bob Day\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>"alistair" <alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:861c1b21.0406240841.3f5890b0@posting.google.com...
> In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent
> of the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is
> a problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in
> different ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it
> believed that information is lost?
> One can say " information disppears from the universe into a black
> hole" but isn't the black hole part of the universe?
>


I don't understand this. I tear out a page from Nature, and
put it into my super-duper CIA designed paper shredder that
shreds paper into atoms! Are you saying that I, theoretically,
could reconstruct that page?

-- Bob Day

Jul1-04, 04:46 PM   #16
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>The correct theory of quantum gravity is expected to show that\nsingularities do not exist inside black holes.So how could this affect\nthe information loss problem associated with black holes? Would the\nsingularity become a small region of space into which a particle\ncannot fall? If nothing can get into this region,it would have zero\nentropy.Since the outer part of a black hole, the event horizon, has\nentropy, perhaps entropy for a black hole would increase,per unit\narea, as we move from the centre towards the horizon.\nSome particles just on the edge of the small region of space at the\ncentre of a black hole,could not move from their position unless more\nparticles\n(cosmic microwave background photons for example)replaced them to keep\nthe entropy in that area the same as it was before (else the second\nlaw of thermodynamics would be broken).Would this mean that Hawking\nradiation could not be emitted from the black hole without an influx\nof particles from outside\nit? Since Hawking radiation is postulated to carry information out of\nthe hole, this would mean that the outflow of information can only\noccur if there is an inflow of other information.Or can someone think\nof an argument against this idea?\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>The correct theory of quantum gravity is expected to show that
singularities do not exist inside black holes.So how could this affect
the information loss problem associated with black holes? Would the
singularity become a small region of space into which a particle
cannot fall? If nothing can get into this region,it would have zero
entropy.Since the outer part of a black hole, the event horizon, has
entropy, perhaps entropy for a black hole would increase,per unit
area, as we move from the centre towards the horizon.
Some particles just on the edge of the small region of space at the
centre of a black hole,could not move from their position unless more
particles
(cosmic microwave background photons for example)replaced them to keep
the entropy in that area the same as it was before (else the second
law of thermodynamics would be broken).Would this mean that Hawking
radiation could not be emitted from the black hole without an influx
of particles from outside
it? Since Hawking radiation is postulated to carry information out of
the hole, this would mean that the outflow of information can only
occur if there is an inflow of other information.Or can someone think
of an argument against this idea?

Jul1-04, 04:48 PM   #17
 
<jabberwocky><div class="vbmenu_control"><a href="jabberwocky:;" onClick="newWindow=window.open('','usenetCode','toolbar=no,location=no, scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes,status=no,width=650,height=400'); newWindow.document.write('<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>Usenet ASCII</TITLE></HEAD><BODY topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 BGCOLOR=#F1F1F1><table border=0 width=625><td bgcolor=midnightblue><font color=#F1F1F1>This Usenet message\'s original ASCII form: </font></td></tr><tr><td width=449><br><br><font face=courier><UL><PRE>"Bob Day" &lt;xxxxxxx@yyyyyyy.com&gt; wrote in message news:&lt;GdBEc.27680\\$Av3.13513@nwrdny01.gnilink.net&gt;...\n&gt; "alistair" &lt;alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk&gt; wrote in message\n&gt; news:861c1b21.0406240841.3f5890b0@posting.google.com...\n&gt; &gt; In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent\n&gt; &gt; of the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is\n&gt; &gt; a problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in\n&gt; &gt; different ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it\n&gt; &gt; believed that information is lost?\n&gt; &gt; One can say " information disppears from the universe into a black\n&gt; &gt; hole" but isn\'t the black hole part of the universe?\n&gt; &gt;\n&gt;\n&gt; I don\'t understand this. I tear out a page from Nature, and\n&gt; put it into my super-duper CIA designed paper shredder that\n&gt; shreds paper into atoms! Are you saying that I, theoretically,\n&gt; could reconstruct that page?\n&gt;\n&gt; -- Bob Day\n\nOf course. Take every atom, including yours and the shredders one,\ninvert their momentum precisely replace matter with anti matter and\nthe paper will reassemble.\nIt just happens to be that these are arbitrarily unlikely initial\nconditions to encounter.\n\n---\n\nfrank\n\n</UL></PRE></font></td></tr></table></BODY><HTML>');"> <IMG SRC=/images/buttons/ip.gif BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER ALT="View this Usenet post in original ASCII form">&nbsp;&nbsp;View this Usenet post in original ASCII form </a></div><P></jabberwocky>"Bob Day" <xxxxxxx@yyyyyyy.com> wrote in message news:<GdBEc.27680$Av3.13513@nwrdny01.gnilink.net>...
> "alistair" <alistair@goforit64.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:861c1b21.0406240841.3f5890b0@posting.google.com...
> > In classical thermodynamics the final state of a system is independent
> > of the path taken to get to that state.And nobody thinks that there is
> > a problem with information loss. So, when black holes, made in
> > different ways, end up with the same spin, mass and charge, why is it
> > believed that information is lost?
> > One can say " information disppears from the universe into a black
> > hole" but isn't the black hole part of the universe?
> >

>
> I don't understand this. I tear out a page from Nature, and
> put it into my super-duper CIA designed paper shredder that
> shreds paper into atoms! Are you saying that I, theoretically,
> could reconstruct that page?
>
> -- Bob Day


Of course. Take every atom, including yours and the shredders one,
invert their momentum precisely replace matter with anti matter and
the paper will reassemble.
It just happens to be that these are arbitrarily unlikely initial
conditions to encounter.

---

frank

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