Black Hole Cannibalism

Abstract

We consider a version of the Hayden-Preskill thought experiment in which the message thrown into the black hole is itself a smaller black hole. We then discuss the implications of the existence of a recovery channel for this black hole message at asymptotic infinity, resulting in a sharpening of the black hole information paradox for observers who never need to approach a horizon. We suggest decoherence mechanisms as a way of resolving this sharpened paradox.

6 pages, 2 figures; Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2021 Awards for Essays on Gravitation

References in corpus (5)

• Black holes as mirrors: quantum information in random subsystems
• The Hilbert Space of Quantum Gravity Is Locally Finite-Dimensional
• The Black Hole Interior in Quantum Gravity
• Hayden-Preskill decoding from noisy Hawking radiation
• Rescuing Complementarity With Little Drama