Membrane paradigm realized?

Abstract

Are there any degrees of freedom on the black hole horizon? Using the `membrane paradigm' we can reproduce coarse-grained physics outside the hole by assuming a fictitious membrane just outside the horizon. But to solve the information puzzle we need `real' degrees of freedom at the horizon, which can modify Hawking's evolution of quantum modes. We argue that recent results on gravitational microstates imply a set of real degrees of freedom just outside the horizon; the state of the hole is a linear combination of rapidly oscillating gravitational solutions with support concentrated just outside the horizon radius. The collective behavior of these microstate solutions may give a realization of the membrane paradigm, with the fictitious membrane now replaced by real, explicit degrees of freedom.

8 pages, Latex, 3 figures (Essay given second place in Gravity Research Foundation essay competition 2010)

References in corpus (10)

• Black holes as mirrors: quantum information in random subsystems
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• What the information paradox is {\it not}
• Extremal black holes, Holography & Coarse graining
• Shear viscosity of a highly excited string and the black hole membrane paradigm