English

Wigner's friend's black hole adventure: an argument for complementarity?

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2026-02-23 v3 Quantum Physics

Abstract

At the heart of both black hole physics and Wigner's friend scenarios lies the question of unitarity. In Wigner's friend setups, sealed-lab measurements are modeled unitarily, probing the measurement problem. In black hole physics, the unitarity problem concerns information preservation in evaporation. We extend a recent analogy between these two puzzles exposed by Hausmann and Renner [arXiv:2504.03835v1] by constructing new paradoxes that merge black hole physics with extensions of the Wigner's friend scenario into a unified argument. This unified construction allows us to sharpen the cloning and firewall paradoxes, which leave room for a post-quantum theory to consistently describe the physics of black holes. We close this loophole, showing that no such theory exists if no observer can experimentally falsify quantum theory's predictions. We conclude by briefly highlighting subtleties in assumptions commonly used in black hole puzzles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2507.05369,
  title  = {Wigner's friend's black hole adventure: an argument for complementarity?},
  author = {Laurens Walleghem},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.05369},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Included new scenario combining firewall and Wigner's friend setup in Section IV, expanded upon discussion and literature. 11+3 pages, all comments welcome!