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arXiv · 1804.05744

What happens in a black hole when a particle meets its antipode

Gerard t Hooft
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Abstract

The notion of antipodal identification on the black hole horizon is further explained and elaborated. Contrasting with numerous attempts in the literature to make fuzzy, poorly motivated models for black holes, we explain how, with an absolute minimum of assumptions, known laws of local physics suffice to calculate the unitary evolution law for a Schwarzschild black hole. Earlier work by the author, which explains how firewalls can and must be avoided, while also the information paradox disappears, ran into its one remaining problem: how to explain it better to the community. Antipodal identification is a natural way to replace thermally mixed states by pure quantum states, without the need to hide our ignorance in "chaos". We do encounter a strange looking sign switch in the relation of particles to their antipodes near the horizon. This sign switch is necessary to recover complete unitarity without any loss of information anywhere, while restoring locality. Although there are some important remaining problems, we advertise our approach as a healthy alternative to the reliance on AdS/CFT conjectures, which, we claim, do not guarantee to provide reliable answers.

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Gerard t Hooft. 2018-04-16. What happens in a black hole when a particle meets its antipode. https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.05744

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