Related papers: The VECRO hypothesis
Unitarity is a pillar of quantum theory. Nevertheless, it is also a source of several of its conceptual problems. We note that in a world where measurements are relational, as is the case in gravitation, quantum mechanics exhibits a…
This paper explores the enduring black hole information and firewall paradoxes, challenges that have prompted many proposals, conjectures, and theories. Noteworthy among these are the ER = EPR conjecture and AdS/CFT correspondence, which…
A personal perspective on the black hole evaporation process is presented using as guidelines inputs from: (i) loop quantum gravity, (ii) simplified models where concrete results have been obtained, and, (iii) semi-classical quantum general…
Black Holes have always played a central role in investigations of quantum gravity. This includes both conceptual issues such as the role of classical singularities and information loss, and technical ones to probe the consistency of…
The black hole information paradox has caused enormous confusion over four decades. But in recent years, the theorem of quantum strong-subaddditivity has sorted out the possible resolutions into three sharp categories: (A) No new physics at…
Quantum gravity may allow black holes to tunnel into white holes. If so, the lifetime of a black hole could be shorter than the one given by Hawking evaporation, solving the information paradox. More interestingly, this could open to a new…
A first-principles approach to the unitarity problem for black holes is systematically explored, based on the postulates of 1) quantum mechanics 2) the ability to approximately locally divide quantum gravitational systems into subsystems 3)…
We argue that black holes admit vortex structure. This is based both on a graviton-condensate description of a black hole as well as on a correspondence between black holes and generic objects with maximal entropy compatible with unitarity,…
We describe the puzzles that arise in the quantum theory of black holes, and explain how they are resolved in string theory. We review how the Bekenstein entropy is obtained through the count of brane bound states. We describe the fuzzball…
Quantum information can provide a lens for characterizing the operational implications of spacetime physics. A well-known result in this area is that quantum entanglement is degraded in the vicinity of a black hole. This result treats the…
Quantum gravity is often expected to solve both the singularity problem and the information-loss problem of black holes. This article presents an example from loop quantum gravity in which the singularity problem is solved in such a way…
Over the last three years, a number of fundamental physical issues were addressed in loop quantum gravity. These include: A statistical mechanical derivation of the horizon entropy, encompassing astrophysically interesting black holes as…
The aim of this chapter is twofold. First, we introduce the information loss problem; second, we provide a critical assessment by thoroughly inspecting the assumptions underlying its formulations. In particular, we argue that if we work in…
The entropy and information puzzles arising from black holes cannot be resolved if quantum gravity effects remain confined to a microscopic scale. We use concrete computations in nonperturbative string theory to argue for three kinds of…
We propose the use of a gravitational uncertainty principle for gravitation. We define the corresponding gravitational Planck's constant and the gravitational quantum of mass. We define entropy in terms of the quantum of gravity with the…
The evaporation of black holes into apparently thermal radiation poses a serious conundrum for theoretical physics: at face value, it appears that in the presence of a black hole quantum evolution is non-unitary and destroys information.…
A theory of quantum gravity is expected to change profoundly our understanding of black holes. Quantum theory has already shown, as a first approximation, that a black hole slowly evaporates. Non-perturbative quantum gravity also predicts…
The quantum gravity vacuum must contain virtual fluctuations of black hole microstates. These extended-size fluctuations get `crushed' when a closed trapped surface forms, and turn into on-shell `fuzzball' states that resolve the…
For distant observers black holes are trapped spacetime domains bounded by apparent horizons. We review properties of the near-horizon geometry emphasizing the consequences of two common implicit assumptions of semiclassical physics. The…
As shown recently (W. Kummer, H. Liebl, D.V. Vassilevich, Nucl. Phys. B 544, 403 (1999)) 2d quantum gravity theories --- including spherically reduced Einstein-gravity --- after an exact path integral of its geometric part can be treated…