What is the nature of information in black holes?

AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the nature of information in black holes, highlighting the debate between Stephen Hawking and Leonard Susskind regarding whether information is lost when matter falls into a black hole. Initially, Hawking argued that information is destroyed at the event horizon, but later revised his stance to suggest that information might be conserved on the black hole's surface. Susskind proposed that this conserved information could be represented as a quantum hologram, suggesting a two-dimensional nature with three-dimensional illusions. The conversation emphasizes that while classical physics applies to black holes, the understanding of information remains incomplete, particularly around the event horizon. This ongoing debate illustrates the complexities of black hole physics and the fundamental questions about the nature of information itself.
shounakbhatta
Messages
287
Reaction score
1
Hello.

I was reading through Black holes and what happen when information falls inside the black hole. The intellectual battle between Susskind and Hawking...I also heard through the lectures on Susskind describing what is information.

(a) Bits
(b) A single photon
(c) The n number of molecules ......

If anybody can explain what is information?

Thanks.
 
Astronomy news on Phys.org
Information in this context is charge, spin, and mass
 
  • Like
Likes 1 person
I am also curious to know more about it.
 
In the context of something falling into a black hole, information is everything you would need to know to reproduce the object that has made the descent and its exact state. When estimating the amount of information required to describe such an object, the unit "bits" can be used - but the information is never actually in bit form. That is, if the amount of information required to fully describe a rock is X petabytes, that doesn't mean that that information is available for downloading to your X petabyte thumb drive.
 
shounakbhatta said:
Hello.

I was reading through Black holes and what happen when information falls inside the black hole. The intellectual battle between Susskind and Hawking...I also heard through the lectures on Susskind describing what is information.

(a) Bits
(b) A single photon
(c) The n number of molecules ......

If anybody can explain what is information?

Thanks.
The argument that Hawking first put forward was that all information was lost as material was torn to pieces at the event horizon. Susskind could not accept that all, or any?, information was lost.

Hawking redressed his original claim about the issue and put forward a proof that suggested that information might be conserved on the surface of a black hole, Susskind suggested that the conserved information might represent a type of quantum hologram - 2d with the aspects and illusions of 3d.

Calculations, by persons I can't quote, suggest that the surface of the black hole will increase proportional to the increase in information absorbed from the matter consumed, but I believe there is a published account of that argument. The Conservation of Information around a Black Hole...
 
This serves to demonstrate our definition of information is incomplete. Black holes seem entirely unaffected by this dichotomy. They are perfectly well behaved by all the usual laws of classical physics. It only gets weird when you probe around the event horizon.
 

Thread 'Does it make sense to build new radio telescopes?'

TL;DR Summary: In 3 years, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope (or rather, a system of telescopes) should be put into operation. In case of failure to detect alien signals, it will further expand the radius of the so-called silence (or rather, radio silence) of the Universe. Is there any sense in this or is blissful ignorance better? In 3 years, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope (or rather, a system of telescopes) should be put into operation. In case of failure to detect...
View full post »
Thread 'Could gamma-ray bursts have an intragalactic origin?'

Thread 'Could gamma-ray bursts have an intragalactic origin?'

This is indirectly evidenced by a map of the distribution of gamma-ray bursts in the night sky, made in the form of an elongated globe. And also the weakening of gamma radiation by the disk and the center of the Milky Way, which leads to anisotropy in the possibilities of observing gamma-ray bursts. My line of reasoning is as follows: 1. Gamma radiation should be absorbed to some extent by dust and other components of the interstellar medium. As a result, with an extragalactic origin, fewer...
View full post »

Thread 'Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos'

This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it less beautiful to me (n.b. the posts must of course comply with the PF guidelines, i.e. regarding science, only mainstream science is allowed, fringe/pseudoscience is not allowed). n.b. I start this...
View full post »

Similar threads

I Information loss in black hole, why is it a problem?
Replies
10
Views
2K
I Light curving around vortex simulating a black hole
Replies
5
Views
2K
I Black Hole Observations: What Changed?
Replies
6
Views
2K
I Quantum bits information lost in black holes
Replies
12
Views
3K
B Unitarity and Entanglement: Examining the Fate of Information in Black Holes
Replies
27
Views
5K
I Black Hole Event Horizon Hypothesis
Replies
6
Views
2K
I Follow an object into a black hole
Replies
12
Views
2K
Loss of stellar information in a black hole
Replies
8
Views
2K
B Could the source of dark energy be our parent black hole feeding?
Replies
6
Views
2K
I What happens if two black holes collide
Replies
12
Views
4K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top