A "black hole theorem," and its implications

Abstract

A general formulation of the basic conflict of the information problem is given, encapsulated in a "black hole theorem." This is framed in a more general context than the usual one of quantum field theory on a background, and is based on describing a black hole as a quantum subsystem of a larger system, including its environment. This sharpens the limited set of possible consistent options; as with the Coleman-Mandula theorem, the most important point is probably the loophole in the "theorem," and what this tells us about the fundamental structure of quantum gravity. This "theorem" in particular involves the general question of how to define quantum subsystems in quantum gravity. If black holes do behave as quantum subsystems, at least to a good approximation, evolve unitarily, and do not leave remnants, the "theorem" implies the presence of interactions between a black hole and its environment that go beyond a description based on local quantum fields. This provides further motivation for and connects to previous work giving a principled parameterization of these interactions, and investigating their possible observational signatures via electromagnetic or gravitational wave observations of black holes.

15 pages of text and figures + end material. v2: Sharpened arguments and motivation; to appear in Classical and Quantum Gravity

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Visions in Quantum Gravity
• Perturbative quantum evolution of the gravitational state and dressing in general backgrounds
• On the Interaction between Ultralight Bosons and Quantum-Corrected Black Holes
• Einstein's equations and the pseudo-entropy of pseudo-Riemannian information manifolds
• Replica wormhole and AMPS firewall