paper

Evaporating Firewalls

arXiv:1307.1796 · doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2014)038

Abstract

In this note, we begin by reviewing an argument (independent from 1304.6483) that the large AdS black holes dual to typical high-energy pure states of a single holographic CFT must have some structure at the horizon (i.e. a firewall/fuzzball). By weakly coupling the CFT to an auxiliary system, such a black hole can be made to evaporate. In a case where the auxiliary system is a second identical CFT, it is possible (for specific initial states) that the system evolves to precisely the thermofield double state as the original black hole evaporates. In this case, the dual geometry should include the "late-time" part of the eternal AdS black hole spacetime which includes smooth spacetime behind the horizon of the original black hole. Thus, we can say that the firewall evaporates. This provides a specific realization of the recent ideas of Maldacena and Susskind that the existence of smooth spacetime behind the horizon of an evaporating black hole can be enabled by maximal entanglement with a Hawking radiation system (in our case the second CFT) rather than prevented by it. For initial states which are not finely-tuned to produce the thermofield double state, the question of whether a late-time infalling observer experiences a firewall translates to a question about the gravity dual of a typical high-energy state of a two-CFT system.

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