English

Probes, purviews, purgatories, parable, paradox?

High Energy Physics - Theory 2023-04-14 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

I discuss some general information-theoretic properties of quantum mechanical probes in semiclassical gravity: their purview, i.e. what they can see and act on (in terms of a generalised entanglement wedge), their spontaneous evaporation into a cloud of highly entropic particles when one tries to make them see too much (perhaps a parable on the dangers of straining one's eyes), and the subsequent resolution of an apparent information paradox.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2304.00679,
  title  = {Probes, purviews, purgatories, parable, paradox?},
  author = {Josh Kirklin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.00679},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

12 pages, 5 figures. Essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2023 Awards for Essays on Gravitation

R2 v1 2026-06-28T09:45:40.915Z