Possible resolution of the black hole information puzzle

Journal Article · Thu Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 1994 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.50.7403· OSTI ID:6882577

Polchinski, J ^[1]; Strominger, A ^[2]

---

1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-4030 (United States)
2. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106-9530 (United States)

The problem of information loss is considered under the assumption that the process of black hole evaporation terminates in the decay of the black hole interior into a baby universe. We show that such theories can be decomposed into superselection sectors labeled by eigenvalues of the third-quantized baby universe field operator, and that scattering is unitary within each superselection sector. This result relies crucially on the quantum-mechanical variability of the decay time. It is further argued that the decay rate in the black hole rest frame is necessarily proportional to [ital e][sup [minus][ital S]][sub tot], where [ital S][sub tot] is the total entropy produced during the evaporation process, entailing a very long-lived remnant.

• OSTI ID: 6882577
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Vol. 50:12; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
INFORMATION
DECAY
EIGENVALUES
ENTROPY
EVAPORATION
FIELD OPERATORS
LOSSES
SCATTERING
MATHEMATICAL OPERATORS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
QUANTUM OPERATORS
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
661310* - Relativity & Gravitation- (1992-)