2,050 research outputs found
Black hole information, unitarity, and nonlocality
The black hole information paradox apparently indicates the need for a
fundamentally new ingredient in physics. The leading contender is nonlocality.
Possible mechanisms for the nonlocality needed to restore unitarity to black
hole evolution are investigated. Suggestions that such dynamics arises from
ultra-planckian modes in Hawking's derivation are investigated and found not to
be relevant, in a picture using smooth slices spanning the exterior and
interior of the horizon. However, no simultaneous description of modes that
have fallen into the black hole and outgoing Hawking modes can be given without
appearance of a large kinematic invariant, or other dependence on
ultra-planckian physics; a reliable argument for information loss thus has not
been constructed. This suggests that strong gravitational dynamics is
important. Such dynamics has been argued to be fundamentally nonlocal in
extreme situations, such as those required to investigate the fate of
information.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures. Major revision of hep-th/0604047. v2: minor
corrections and added referenc
Locality in quantum gravity and string theory
Breakdown of local physics in string theory at distances longer than the
string scale is investigated. Such nonlocality would be expected to be visible
in ultrahigh-energy scattering. The results of various approaches to such
scattering are collected and examined. No evidence is found for non-locality
from strings whose length grows linearly with the energy. However, local
quantum field theory does apparently fail at scales determined by gravitational
physics, particularly strong gravitational dynamics. This amplifies locality
bound arguments that such failure of locality is a fundamental aspect of
physics. This kind of nonlocality could be a central element of a possible
loophole in the argument for information loss in black holes.Comment: 26 pages, 3 figures, harvmac. v2: minor changes to bring into accord
with revised paper hep-th/060519
Nonlocality vs. complementarity: a conservative approach to the information problem
A proposal for resolution of the information paradox is that "nice slice"
states, which have been viewed as providing a sharp argument for information
loss, do not in fact do so as they do not give a fully accurate description of
the quantum state of a black hole. This however leaves an information
*problem*, which is to provide a consistent description of how information
escapes when a black hole evaporates. While a rather extreme form of
nonlocality has been advocated in the form of complementarity, this paper
argues that is not necessary, and more modest nonlocality could solve the
information problem. One possible distinguishing characteristic of scenarios is
the information retention time. The question of whether such nonlocality
implies acausality, and particularly inconsistency, is briefly addressed. The
need for such nonlocality, and its apparent tension with our empirical
observations of local quantum field theory, may be a critical missing piece in
understanding the principles of quantum gravity.Comment: 11 pages of text and figures, + references. v2 minor text. v3 small
revisions to match final journal versio
High energy QCD scattering, the shape of gravity on an IR brane, and the Froissart bound
High-energy scattering in non-conformal gauge theories is investigated using
the AdS/CFT dual string/gravity theory. It is argued that strong-gravity
processes, such as black hole formation, play an important role in the dual
dynamics. Further information about this dynamics is found by performing a
linearized analysis of gravity for a mass near an infrared brane; this gives
the far field approximation to black hole or other strong-gravity effects, and
in particular allows us to estimate their shape. From this shape, one can infer
a total scattering cross-section that grows with center of mass energy as ln^2
E, saturating the Froissart bound.Comment: 27 pages, 1 fig, harvmac. v2: references added, typos corrected v3:
typo correcte
Precursors, black holes, and a locality bound
We revisit the problem of precursors in the AdS/CFT correspondence.
Identification of the precursors is expected to improve our understanding of
the tension between holography and bulk locality and of the resolution of the
black hole information paradox. Previous arguments that the precursors are
large, undecorated Wilson loops are found to be flawed. We argue that the role
of precursors should become evident when one saturates a certain locality
bound. The spacetime uncertainty principle is a direct consequence of this
bound.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figs; reference added, minor clarification in sec. 2;
incorrect draft mistakenly used in version
Entropy in Black Hole Pair Production
Pair production of Reissner-Nordstrom black holes in a magnetic field can be
described by a euclidean instanton. It is shown that the instanton amplitude
contains an explicit factor of , where is the area of the event
horizon. This is consistent with the hypothesis that measures the
number of black hole states.Comment: 24 pages (harvmac l mode
Numerical Analysis of Black Hole Evaporation
Black hole formation/evaporation in two-dimensional dilaton gravity can be
described, in the limit where the number of matter fields becomes large, by
a set of second-order partial differential equations. In this paper we solve
these equations numerically. It is shown that, contrary to some previous
suggestions, black holes evaporate completely a finite time after formation. A
boundary condition is required to evolve the system beyond the naked
singularity at the evaporation endpoint. It is argued that this may be
naturally chosen so as to restore the system to the vacuum. The analysis also
applies to the low-energy scattering of -wave fermions by four-dimensional
extremal, magnetic, dilatonic black holes.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures in separate uuencoded fil
Comments on information loss and remnants
The information loss and remnant proposals for resolving the black hole
information paradox are reconsidered. It is argued that in typical cases
information loss implies energy loss, and thus can be thought of in terms of
coupling to a spectrum of ``fictitious'' remnants. This suggests proposals for
information loss that do not imply planckian energy fluctuations in the low
energy world. However, if consistency of gravity prevents energy
non-conservation, these remnants must then be considered to be real. In either
case, the catastrophe corresponding to infinite pair production remains a
potential problem. Using Reissner-Nordstrom black holes as a paradigm for a
theory of remnants, it is argued that couplings in such a theory may give
finite production despite an infinite spectrum. Evidence for this is found in
analyzing the instanton for Schwinger production; fluctuations from the
infinite number of states lead to a divergent stress tensor, spoiling the
instanton calculation. Therefore naive arguements for infinite production fail.Comment: 30 pages (harvmac l mode) UCSBTH-93-35 (minor reference and typo
corrections
Soluble models in 2d dilaton gravity
A one-parameter class of simple models of two-dimensional dilaton gravity,
which can be exactly solved including back-reaction effects, is investigated at
both classical and quantum levels. This family contains the RST model as a
special case, and it continuously interpolates between models having a flat
(Rindler) geometry and a constant curvature metric with a non-trivial dilaton
field. The processes of formation of black hole singularities from collapsing
matter and Hawking evaporation are considered in detail. Various physical
aspects of these geometries are discussed, including the cosmological
interpretation.Comment: 15 pages, harvmac, 3 figure
Information Loss and Anomalous Scattering
The approach of 't Hooft to the puzzles of black hole evaporation can be
applied to a simpler system with analogous features. The system is
dimensional electrodynamics in a linear dilaton background. Analogues of black
holes, Hawking radiation and evaporation exist in this system. In perturbation
theory there appears to be an information paradox but this gets resolved in the
full quantum theory and there exists an exact -matrix, which is fully
unitary and information conserving. 't Hooft's method gives the leading terms
in a systematic approximation to the exact result.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures (postscript files available soon on request),
(earlier version got corrupted by mail system
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