World Science Scholars

2.4 Hawking Radiation and Information Loss

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    • In general relativity, black holes are like one-way security vaults. Information goes in and never comes out. However, information loss was not a problem so long as black holes didn’t evaporate because determinism was preserved. We could run the equations backwards in time and get the information out through “white holes.” Hawking showed that for evaporating black holes, running the equations backwards in time no longer gives us white holes. Rather, we just get more, information-less Hawking radiation. Do you think information conservation (i.e, determinism) should be a required feature of physical theories and a litmus test of a consistent theory of quantum gravity, as Professor Mathur suggests? Explain your answer.

    • Tough question… I don’t know the answer. I’m interested what professor Mathur says about the topic.

    • It would be a desired one but shouldn’t be always necessary. Don’t know what to say more.

    • A speculative answer will be to keep on the determinism, they may other concepts beyond todays understanding of Quantum Physic and entanglement, e.g. the energy transformed during evaporation of black holes distorts black energy and its surrounding space.

    • The conservation of information (cause and effect) is a fundamental tenet of science (as we currently understand it), to abandon it would be taking a blind leap of faith into unknown realms of pure speculation. More like theology than theory.

    • Possibly

    • Hello Ladies and Gentlemen,

      The conservation of energy is a very valid point.

      Black hole conforming halos are also a feature noticed on the edge of the universe.

      We are not in the media to understand it. As soon as a crucial number of people become familiar with space or circumpolar regions that are space-like, these questions will find answers.

      It is ok there are questions, but ground-level studies are needed, from the… Can we call space a biome? No.

    • I get information loss all the time it’s called age, and I will eventually collapse into…??? Hmm, maybe I’m paradoxical, I should reexamine my existence.

    • I believe that information is always conserved in some form. Just as mass can change its structure without its fundamental components disappearing, information follows a continuous cycle. Even if the result looks different after entering a black hole, the core information cannot simply vanish. Therefore, information conservation must be a required feature of any consistent theory of quantum gravity

    • Yes, I strongly agree with Professor Mathur’s suggestion that information conservation (determinism) should be a fundamental pillar of any consistent physical theory, including Quantum Gravity.
      Here is why:
      The Core of Quantum Mechanics: Unitary and predictability are foundational to quantum mechanics. If information is truly lost forever in a black hole evaporation process, it breaks the absolute mathematical structure of quantum theory, leading to a fundamental paradox (The Black Hole Information Paradox).
      The Litmus Test: Therefore, any successful theory of Quantum Gravity (whether it is String Theory’s fuzzball proposal, Loop Quantum Gravity, or Holographic Principle) must solve this problem without losing information. If a proposed theory fails to preserve information, it indicates that the theory is likely incomplete or conceptually flawed.
      In short, preserving information is not just a preference; it is a vital litmus test to check if our quantum and gravitational descriptions of nature are truly consistent.

    • As an aspiring astrophysicist, you should view information conservation as a non-negotiable requirement because it is essential to the unitarity of the S-matrix, which ensures that total probabilities always sum to one within quantum mechanics. If information were truly lost, the foundational mathematical framework of the universe would lose its predictive power, as past states would no longer uniquely determine future ones. Professor Mathur’s “litmus test” is therefore considered the correct standard for a consistent theory of quantum gravity, it forces us to move beyond the semiclassical “empty” black hole model and instead account for complex, string theoretic states like “fuzzballs” that allow information to be encoded in radiation, preserving the fundamental reversibility of physical law.

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