CENTRO CULTURAL ANGLO AMERICANO

ENGLISH DEPARTAMENT

BLACK HOLE INFORMATION LOSS PARADOX

ENGLISH RESEARCH PAPER

STUDENT: Guillermo Gabriel Urquidi Salinas

GRADE: Vº Sec
TEACHER: Charo Ruth Jose Dorado
YEAR: 2022

Cochabamba-Bolivia
 OUTLINE

I. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………1
II. Basic Concepts about Black Holes……………………………………………….2
2.1 . Black Hole
Definition……………………………………………………………….2
2.2 . Formation and Evolution
Process……………………………………………….2
2.2.1. Gravitational collapse…………………………………………………….….3
2.2.2.
Growth…………………………………………………………………………..4
2.2.3.
Evaporation…………………………………………………………………….4
2.3 . Parts of a Black
Hole……………………………………………………………….5
2.3.1. Event horizon………………………………………………………………….5
2.3.2.
Singularity……………………………………………………………………...6
2.4. Types of Black
Holes……………………………………………………………….7
2.4.1 Stellar black
holes……………………………………………………………..7
2.4.2. Supermassive black
holes…………………………………………………..7
2.4.3. Intermediate black holes…………………………………………………….8
2.4.4. Binary black
holes…………………………………………………………….8
III. Falling into a Black
Hole…………………………………………………………….9
3.1. Hawking’s Information Loss
Paradox………………………………………….10
 3.1.1. Hawking’s
Radiation………………………………………………………..10
3.2. Proposed
solutions………………………………………………………………..11
3.2.1. Parallel Universes Theory………………………………………...
…........11
3.2.2. Holographic Principle……………………………………………..
….........12
3.2.3. Black Hole’s Firewall……………………………………………………….13
IV. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………
Annexes……………………………………………………………………………………

I. INTRODUCTION

Black holes are undoubtedly one of the most mysterious objects in the universe.
Imagine that a big star can fall upon itself, forming a black hole: a place in space
where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. And unfortunately, we
can only illustrate black holes because we cannot even see them since strong
gravity pulls all the light into the middle of the black hole.

Luckily, they won’t destroy Earth, will they? If that happened, you would be
spaghettified, which means that as you approach the black hole, your body would
progressively break down into a long thin string of particles by the increasing
gravitational forces. The reason this would happen is that the gravity force exerted
by the singularity would be much stronger on your feet than on your head, and
don't forget the most important thing: you wouldn’t be able to escape. “To all the
 words in the English language that describe ways to die, we add the term
spaghettification”. (Neil deGrasse Tyson).

There are many topics about them that aren’t totally known because at the moment
there is no technology capable of studying black holes as a whole. Scientists can
only speculate and propose hypothesis to explain them. But often these
hypotheses differ from each other, causing a confrontation between them.

One of these topics that origins debate nowadays is what happens with the
information (all the particles) after being absorbed by a black hole. Five decades
ago, Stephen Hawking described the information loss that created a paradox,
because it referred to the fact that the information cannot be destroyed in the
universe, and yet when a black hole eventually evaporates, it vanishes whatever
information that had been gobbled up.

In a series of breakthrough papers, theoretical physicists have come close to

resolving the black hole information paradox that has entranced and bedeviled
them for nearly 50 years. Information, they now say with confidence, does escape
a black hole.

I. Basic Concepts about Black Holes

2.1. Black Hole Definition

A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing no

particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light can escape from it. The
theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform
spacetime to form a black hole. The boundary of no escape is called the event
horizon.

Although it has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object

crossing it, it has no locally detectable features according to general relativity. In
many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light.
Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons
emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrum as a black body of a temperature
inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is of the order of billionths of a
kelvin for stellar black holes, making it essentially impossible to observe directly.

A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot
get out. The gravity is so strong because matter has been squeezed into a tiny
space. This can happen when a star is dying.

As Nasa (2015) states, “people can't see black holes because no light can
get out. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find
black holes. The special tools can see how stars that are very close to black
holes act differently than other stars.” (taken from:
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-
a-black-hole-k4.html)

2.2. Formation and Evolution Process

Conventional black holes are formed by gravitational collapse of heavy objects
such as stars, but they can also in theory be formed by other processes.

2.2.1. Gravitational collapse

Gravitational collapse occurs when an object's internal pressure is
insufficient to resist the object's own gravity. For stars this usually occurs
either because a star has too little "fuel" left to maintain its temperature
through stellar nucleosynthesis, or because a star that would have been
stable receives extra matter in a way that does not raise its core
temperature.
In either case the star's temperature is no longer high enough to prevent it
from collapsing under its own weight. The collapse may be stopped by the
degeneracy pressure of the star's constituents, allowing the condensation of
matter into an exotic denser state. The result is one of the various types of
compact star.
If the mass of the remnant exceeds about 3–4 the solar mass, either
because the original star was very heavy or because the remnant collected
additional mass through accretion of matter, the object will inevitably
collapse to form a black hole.
The gravitational collapse of heavy stars is assumed to be responsible for
the formation of stellar mass black holes. Star formation in the early
universe may have resulted in very massive stars, which upon their collapse
would have produced black holes of up to 103 solar masses. These black
holes could be the seeds of the supermassive black holes found in the
centers of most galaxies.
Gravitational collapse requires great density. In the current epoch of the
universe these high densities are found only in stars, but in the early
universe shortly after the Big Bang densities were much greater, possibly
allowing for the creation of black holes.
Despite the early universe being extremely dense far denser than is usually
required to form a black hole it did not recollapse into a black hole during the
Big Bang. (Wikipedia contributors, 2022)

2.2.2. Growth
Once a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing
additional matter. Any black hole will continually absorb gas and interstellar
dust from its surroundings. This growth process is one possible way through
which some supermassive black holes may have been formed, although the
formation of supermassive black holes is still an open field of research.
Black holes can also merge with other objects such as stars or even other
black holes. This is thought to have been important, especially in the early
growth of supermassive black holes, which could have formed from the
aggregation of many smaller objects.

2.2.3. Evaporation
Hawking (1974) predicted that:
Black holes are not entirely black but emit small amounts of
thermal radiation; this effect has become known as Hawking
radiation. By applying quantum field theory to a static black
hole background, Hawking determined that a black hole should
emit particles that display a perfect black body spectrum.
(taken from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole#Formation_and_evolut
ion)
The Hawking radiation from stellar-sized black holes of a few solar
masses, up to supermassive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies, is
minuscule. The Hawking temperature of a 30 solar mass black hole is
a tiny 2 × 10−9 Kelvin, and its Hawking luminosity a miserable 10 −31
Watts. A stellar black hole of 1 M☉ has a Hawking temperature of 62
nanokelvins.
Bigger black holes are colder and dimmer: The Hawking temperature
is inversely proportional to the mass, while the Hawking luminosity is
inversely proportional to the square of the mass. If a black hole is
very small, the radiation effects are expected to become very strong.
The Hawking radiation for an astrophysical black hole is predicted to
be very weak and would thus be exceedingly difficult to detect from
Earth. According to Wikipedia (2022):
“If Hawking's theory of black hole radiation is correct, then
black holes are expected to shrink and evaporate over time as
they lose mass by the emission of photons and other particles.
Hence, large black holes emit less radiation than small black
 holes.” (taken from: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Hawking_radiation&oldid=1114842521)

2.3. Parts of a Black Hole

2.3.1. Event horizon

The defining feature of a black hole is the appearance of an event horizon, a
boundary in spacetime through which matter and light can pass only inward
towards the mass of the black hole. Nothing, not even light, can escape from
inside the event horizon.
The event horizon is referred to as such because if an event occurs within the
boundary, information from that event cannot reach an outside observer,
making it impossible to determine whether such an event occurred.
To a distant observer, clocks near a black hole would appear to tick more
slowly than those farther away from the black hole. Due to this effect, known as
gravitational time dilation, an object falling into a black hole appears to slow as
it approaches the event horizon, taking an infinite time to reach it.
At the same time, all processes on this object slow down, from the viewpoint of
a fixed outside observer, causing any light emitted by the object to appear
redder and dimmer, an effect known as gravitational redshift.
Eventually, the falling object fades away until it can no longer be seen.
Typically, this process happens very rapidly with an object disappearing from
view within less than a second.
On the other hand, indestructible observers falling into a black hole do not
notice any of these effects as they cross the event horizon. According to their
own clocks, which appear to them to tick normally, they cross the event horizon
after a finite time without noting any singular behavior.
In classical general relativity, it is impossible to determine the location of the
event horizon from local observations, due to Einstein's equivalence principle.
For non-rotating (static) black holes the geometry of the event horizon is
precisely spherical, while for rotating black holes the event horizon is oblate.
 2.3.2. Singularity
At the center of a black hole, as described by general relativity, may lie a
gravitational singularity, a region where the spacetime curvature becomes
infinite. As Netlify.App (2022) remarks:
For a non-rotating black hole, this region takes the shape of a single point;
for a rotating black hole it is smeared out to form a ring singularity that lies in
the plane of rotation. In both cases, the singular region has zero volume. It
can also be shown that the singular region contains all the mass of the black
hole solution. The singular region can thus be thought of as having infinite
density. (taken from: https://blackholes.netlify.app/properties.html)
Observers falling into a Schwarzschild black hole (non-rotating and not
charged) cannot avoid being carried into the singularity once they cross the
event horizon. When they reach the singularity, they are crushed to infinite
density and their mass is added to the total of the black hole. Before that
happens, they will have been torn apart by the growing tidal forces in a process
sometimes referred to as spaghettification or the "noodle effect".
In the case of a charged (Reissner–Nordström) or rotating (Kerr) black hole, it is
possible to avoid the singularity. Extending these solutions as far as possible
reveals the hypothetical possibility of exiting the black hole into a different
spacetime with the black hole acting as a wormhole. The possibility of traveling
to another universe is, however, only theoretical since any perturbation would
destroy this possibility.
2.4. Types of Black Holes
There are four types of black holes: stellar, intermediate, supermassive, and
miniature.
2.4.1 Stellar black holes
When a star burns through the last of its fuel, the object may collapse, or fall
into itself. For smaller stars (those up to about three times the sun's mass),
the new core will become a neutron star or a white dwarf. But when a larger
star collapses, it continues to compress and creates a stellar black hole.
Black holes formed by the collapse of individual stars are relatively small but
incredibly dense. One of these objects packs more than three times the
mass of the sun into the diameter of a city. This leads to a crazy amount of
gravitational force pulling on objects around the object.
Stellar black holes then consume the dust and gas from their surrounding
galaxies, which keeps them growing in size.
2.4.2. Supermassive black holes
Small black holes populate the universe, but their cousins, supermassive
black holes, dominate. These enormous black holes are millions or even
billions of times as massive as the sun but are about the same size in
diameter. Such black holes are thought to lie at the center of pretty much
every galaxy, including the Milky Way.
Scientists aren't certain how such large black holes spawn. Once these
giants have formed, they gather mass from the dust and gas around them,
material that is plentiful in the center of galaxies, allowing them to grow to
even more enormous sizes.
Supermassive black holes may be the result of hundreds or thousands of
tiny black holes that merge. Large gas clouds could also be responsible,
collapsing together and rapidly accreting mass. A third option is the collapse
of a stellar cluster, a group of stars all falling together. Fourth, supermassive
black holes could arise from large clusters of dark matter. This is a
substance that we can observe through its gravitational effect on other
objects; however, we don't know what dark matter is composed of because
it does not emit light and cannot be directly observed.
2.4.3. Intermediate black holes
Scientists once thought that black holes came in only small and large sizes,
but research has revealed the possibility that midsize, or intermediate, black
holes (IMBHs) could exist. Such bodies could form when stars in a cluster
collide in a chain reaction. Several of these IMBHs forming in the same
region could then eventually fall together in the center of a galaxy and
create a supermassive black hole.
 As study co-author Tim Roberts, of the University of Durham in the United
Kingdom, said in a statement: "Astronomers have been looking very hard for
these medium-sized black holes,". "There have been hints that they exist,
but IMBHs have been acting like a long-lost relative that isn't interested in
being found." (taken from: https://www.space.com/28667-black-hole-
missing-link-discovery.html#:~:text=%22Astronomers%20have%20been
%20looking%20very,t%20interested%20in%20being%20found.%22)
2.4.4. Binary black holes
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) (2015)
detected “gravitational waves from merging stellar black holes.”
As two black holes spiral around one another, they can spin in the same
direction or the opposite direction.

There are two theories on how binary black holes form. The first suggests
that the two black holes in a binary form at about the same time, from two
stars that were born together and died explosively at about the same time.
The companion stars would have had the same spin orientation as one
another, so the two black holes left behind would as well. Under the second
model, black holes in a stellar cluster sink to the center of the cluster and
pair up.

II. Falling into a Black Hole

Black holes are one-way doors in the Universe. No-one knows what goes on
inside, except that matter is compressed to an incredibly high density.
Every black hole has an event horizon: the point at which the gravitational pull
becomes so strong that you can’t escape from it. As you start being pulled toward
a black hole, you’d be moving faster and faster, accelerated by the force of gravity.
The gravitational forces are so intense, and change so quickly that if you were
unfortunate enough to stand next to one, the force exerted on your feet would be
much stronger than that exerted on your head. So much that in fact, the massive
change in force would be stronger than the forces holding your body in its normal
shape. Scientists have predicted that in such a situation your body would be
stretched in a phenomenon dubbed "Spaghettification".
The most common black holes are the stellar black holes. If you happened to be
pulled towards a stellar black hole, you’d be completely torn apart before you even
reach the event horizon.
In case that you fell into a supermassive black hole, your body would remain
unharmed as you cross the event horizon, as the gravity would be pulling both your
feet and your head with almost the same strength.
You’d be squashed into the gravitational singularity where density becomes infinite
at the center of the black hole and become one with the black hole.
However, a person observing you outside of the event horizon would see a very
different picture. As you were falling into a black hole, for them, you’d be slowing
down, get dimmer and redder. In the end, you’d just freeze, never crossing the
event horizon. This is because space and time in a black hole swap their roles. At
the event horizon, time comes to a standstill, while space, on the other hand,
moves forward.
Even when the black hole eventually died, emitting all the particles it had absorbed
(including your body), it would be impossible to tell whether those particles were
you. Stephen Hawking, however, found a way, in which the information about your
body wouldn’t be lost. He theorized that there are alternate universes with different
histories.

3.1. Hawking’s Information Loss Paradox

In the 1970s, Hawking discovered that black holes aren't exactly black, but
at first, he didn't realize the giant problem he had created. Before his
discovery, physicists had assumed that black holes were exceedingly
simple. Sure, all sorts of complicated stuff fell into them, but the black holes
locked all that information away, never to be seen again. Hawking (1974)
found:
Black holes release radiation, and can eventually evaporate entirely,
in a process now known as Hawking radiation. But that radiation
didn't carry any information itself. Indeed, it couldn't; by definition, the
event horizon of a black hole prevents information from leaving. So,
when a black hole finally evaporates and disappears from the
universe, it is unknown where all its locked-up information goes.
(taken from: https://www.livescience.com/black-hole-paradox-
solution)
This is the black hole information paradox. One possibility is that information
can be destroyed, which seems to violate everything we know about
physics. Either way, describing this process requires new physics.

3.1.1. Hawking’s Radiation

It is named after the physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking radiation is
the thermal radiation predicted to be spontaneously emitted by black
holes. It arises from the steady conversion of quantum vacuum
fluctuations into pairs of particles.
As a result of quantum fluctuations, particle-antiparticle pairs can
appear from the vacuum of space near the event horizon of a black
hole in which the net energy of the particles is zero due to the matter
and antimatter nature of the particles.
In normal conditions, particle-antiparticle pairs that appear due to the
quantum fluctuations annihilate each other. But if one member of the
pair falls beyond the event horizon of the black hole, the other particle
will not have a sister with which to annihilate.
The member that does not fall into the black hole is then emitted from
the black hole as hawking radiation. The particle that falls into the
black hole effectively has negative energy, meaning that it will
subtract from the overall mass-energy content of the black hole.
Thus, after enough time has passed, the black hole will evaporate
from these negative particles, while seeming to emit positive ones.
Hawking radiation reduces the mass and the energy of the black hole
and is therefore also known as black hole evaporation. Because of
this, black holes that lose more mass than they gain through other
means are expected to shrink and ultimately vanish.

3.2. Proposed solutions

Most physicists try to solve the paradox by finding some way for the
information inside the black hole to leak out through the Hawking
radiation. That way, when the black hole disappears, the information
is still present in the universe.
The researchers review, explain, and divide the solutions to the
paradox into two 'teams': The Stephen Hawking team, who said that
information should be allowed to be lost, and the quantum team,
represented by four solutions who think that the information is
preserved: Retains: Preskill's, Holographic Principle, Wall of Fire, and
Tunneling Chance.

3.2.3. Parallel Universes Theory

"If you fall into a black hole, you could end up in another
universe" (Stephen Hawking. Public lecture in Stockholm,
Sweden. 2015)
Stephen Hawking proposed a new theory about where lost
information ends up after being sucked into a black hole, a
place where gravity compresses matter to a point where the
usual laws of physics break down.
In a public lecture in Stockholm, Sweden, Prof Hawking said:
“If you feel you are in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way
out.” He said he had discovered a mechanism “by which
information is returned out of the black hole”.
Information about the physical state of something disappearing
into a black hole appears to be completely lost. But according
to the way the universe works, this should be impossible. Even
information falling into a black hole ought to end up
somewhere.
According to Hawking (2015), it does in one of two ways:
“Either it is translated into a kind of “hologram” on the edge of
the black hole, or it breaks out into an alternative universe.”
(taken from:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/25/black-
holes-way-out-stephen-hawking)
In his lecture, reported in a blog from the KTH Royal Institute of
Technology, he said: “The existence of alternative histories
with black holes suggests this might be possible. The hole
would need to be large and if it was rotating it might have a
passage to another universe. But you couldn’t come back to
our universe…”

3.2.1. Holographic Principle

Now, based on string theory which proposes, in general, that

particles are made up of extended one-dimensional objects
(strings), the holographic principle was formulated.

It proposes that there is no single answer and that the two

options of the paradox are valid (complementary). That is,
when an observer looks at the hole from the outside, they
witness how objects fall, vaporize and, in turn, emit radiation; if
an observer falls into the hole the observer does not notice any
temperature or discomfort until tidal forces finally become
strong enough to destroy them.
3.2.2. Black Hole’s Firewall

The firewall which posits that the event horizon of the black
hole is a kind of ring of fire that burns any object that passes
through it and the information remains incinerated on the
horizon, without being lost.