Pure states don't wear black

Abstract

Recently, string theory has provided some remarkable new insights into the microphysics of black holes. I argue that a simple and important lesson is also provided with regards to the information loss paradox, namely, pure quantum states do not form black holes! Thus it seems black hole formation, as well as evaporation, must be understood within the framework of quantum decoherence.

6 pages, harvmac.tex, awarded First Prize in the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Competition, to appear in General Relativity and Gravitation

References in corpus (1)

• Black Strings and Classical Hair

Cited by in corpus (38)

• Testing the nature of dark compact objects: a status report
• Gravity and the Thermodynamics of Horizons
• New Horizons for Fundamental Physics with LISA
• Black Hole Remnants and the Information Loss Paradox
• Evolution of Holographic Entanglement Entropy after Thermal and Electromagnetic Quenches
• Non-supersymmetric smooth geometries and D1-D5-P bound states
• Quantum Gravity: General Introduction and Recent Developments
• Instability of non-supersymmetric smooth geometries
• How does a dark compact object ringdown?
• The Bekenstein Formula and String Theory (N-brane Theory)
• Stability of rotating scalar boson stars with nonlinear interactions
• Towards an S-matrix Description of Gravitational Collapse
• Search for Quantum Gravity
• Universal black hole stability in four dimensions
• AdS/CFT in the Infinite Momentum Frame
• Semiclassical zero-temperature corrections to Schwarzschild spacetime and holography
• Generalized Uncertainty Principle: Implications for Black Hole Complementarity
• Hawking radiation from decoherence
• Emission Spectrum of Fundamental Strings: An Algebraic Approach
• String theory and the Classical Stability of Plane Waves
• Semiclassical Decay of Near-Extremal Black Holes
• Quantum Mechanics of the Early Universe and its Limiting Transition
• Testing the nature of dark compact objects with gravitational waves
• Generating asymptotically plane wave spacetimes
• The Density Matrix Deformation in Physics of the Early Universe and Some of its Implications
• Charge Loss (or the Lack Thereof) for AdS Black Holes
• Density matrix and dynamical aspects of Quantum Mechanics with Fundamental Length
• Probable ratio of the vacuum energy in a Schwarzchild-de Sitter space
• Statistical Effects and the Black Hole/D-brane Correspondence
• Higher-Curvature Gravity, Black Holes and Holography
• Generalized Uncertainty Relations,Fundamental Length and Density Matrix
• Gödel Incompleteness and the Black Hole Information Paradox
• How strings solve the apparent contradiction between black holes and quantum coherence
• A Quantum Rosetta Stone for the Information Paradox
• Putting Liouville String Models of (Quantum) Gravity to Test
• Astrophysical Paradoxes, long version
• Black holes and their horizons in semiclassical and modified theories of gravity
• The Quantum and Statistical Theory of Early Universe and Its Possible Applications to Cosmology