MadIce said:
The Ohio State University claims that...
...
...
You can find the full article here: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/fuzzball.htm
The paper in the March 1 issue of the journal Nuclear Physics B mentioned in the above article is available at:
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0311092...
...
Out of respect for Samir Mathur and the scientific content of his paper, we should probably try to assess what it actually says (and not necessarily how the OSU "Research News" reporter named Pamela Gorder interprets it for the public)
MadIce, thanks for the links!
this answers at least one of the questions i asked in my post
"Is the result limited to a string theory context?"
the abstract for Nuclear Physics B article helps to clear this up.
the result is for certain of the "extremal" black holes of string theory----these are not the black holes of General Relativity which GR-theorists and astronomers usually talk about, but instead are hypothetical structures assumed to be so highly charged electrically and/or spinning so fast that they only barely fall short of disassembling.
there is no testable string theory, so of course one cannot be sure that results derived within a string context have anything to do with nature, but if the brand of string theory used by Mathur were ever brought to a verifiable point and found to serve as a model for reality, then the result would apply to "extremal" black holes rather than to those objects which astronomers think they are observing these days and call black holes, or which GR-theorists such as Hawking and friends normally theorize about.
the "extremal" black hole is a mental construct which is rather special to string theory and not really current elsewhere AFAIK.
Here is the abstract of the Nuclear Physics paper you kindly and helpfully provided:
"It has been found that the states of the 2-charge extremal D1-D5 system are given by smooth geometries that have no singularity and no horizon individually, but a `horizon' does arise after `coarse-graining'. To see how this concept extends to the 3-charge extremal system, we construct a perturbation on the D1-D5 geometry that carries one unit of momentum charge $P$. The perturbation is found to be regular everywhere and normalizable, so we conclude that at least this state of the 3-charge system behaves like the 2-charge states. The solution is constructed by matching (to several orders) solutions in the inner and outer regions of the geometry. We conjecture the general form of `hair' expected for the 3-charge system, and the nature of the interior of black holes in general."
the operative word at the conclusion is "conjecture" and it is conjectured that the inside of a
general black hole (not the type or types special to string theory but presumeably the usual kinds other people talk about)
is, as Pam Gorder puts it in her research-publicity article
"...a giant tangle of strings that fills a black hole from its core to its surface"
---------
each of us has to make of this what he or she will
but the message does not seem to address the main problem at the heart of the BH Information Paradox, which is "how does the information get out before the BH evaporates?"
Samir is conjecturing a form in which the information that falls into the hole may continue to exist. But that is not what bothers people. the information could exist in various ways. What causes the paradox is the expectation that the hole will evaporate---so
then where is the information?
OK it fell into the hole and Samir Mathur has encoded it in a gigantic tangle of strings. But a trillion years later the hole has evaporated by emitting Hawking radiation for a trillion years. How did the information get out? Or did it unravel somehow from the "gigantic tangle of strings" where it was encoded, and die, while it was waiting inside the hole? Or was there some trick method which allowed it to escape?
String theory, indeed conventional quantum theory in general, does not allow information to die. Time evolution is "unitary" ----math jargon meaning in this case information-preserving.
It does not appear that postulating a gigantic tangle of strings inside the hole, which is made to encode the information, addresses the heart of the paradox.
However there may be
other Samir Mathur papers which treat the question everyone is asking which is how does the info escape. Apparently
Leonard Susskind, another string theorist, conjectured a kind of "teleportation" in the 1990s that would get it out. Various people have apparently conjectured various mechanisms. Somewhat like Houdini Escape-Stunt trick doors that allow Houdini to get out of the lock and chains and box submerged in the swimming pool, before he suffocates or drowns.
Anyway it is all very interesting. I think you would agree that we owe it to Samir Mathur to try to get some notion of what he actually is claiming to have proved. And in some other paper he may have conjectured a Houdini Escape mechanism---which would be fascinating to know about----so I hope you will kindly pass along some links about that if you find any.
Reply to Devilin. Devilin the satirical way you ended your last post made me break out laughing. I can easily imagine a theorist saying just that upon finishing his latest brilliant research paper.
"Somebody call
New Scientist, and give me a banana."
Introduce new treat in words of kindness and the bell and kindness form, and then soon, the bell becomes kindness 
