English

Hawking radiation with pure states

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2024-12-13 v3

Abstract

Hawking's seminal work on black hole radiation highlights a critical issue in our understanding of quantum field theory in curved spacetime (QFTCS), specifically the problem of unitarity loss (where pure states evolve into mixed states). In this paper, we examine a recent proposal for a direct-sum QFTCS, which maintains unitarity through a novel quantization method that employs geometric superselection rules based on discrete spacetime transformations. This approach describes a quantum state in terms of components that evolve within geometric superselection sectors of the complete Hilbert space, adhering to the discrete symmetries of a Schwarzschild black hole. Consequently, it represents a maximally entangled pure state as a direct-sum of two components in the interior and exterior regions of the black hole, thereby preserving the unitarity of Hawking radiation by keeping it in the form of pure states.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2407.18652,
  title  = {Hawking radiation with pure states},
  author = {K. Sravan Kumar and João Marto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2407.18652},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

20 pages, 3 figures, work presented at the Spanish and Portuguese Relativity Meeting - EREP 2023. Version published in GRG

R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:54:28.538Z