The Firewall Paradox

Abstract

In this MSc. thesis, we have attempted to give an overview of the firewall paradox and various approaches towards its resolution. After an introductory chapter on some basic concepts in quantum field theory in curved spacetimes such as Hawking radiation, we introduce the paradox. It arises out of application of principles each of which is thought or assumed to be correct: 1) unitary black hole evaporation, 2) validity of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, 3) a measure of the number of black hole quantum states, 4) Einstein's equivalence principle. Then, we present various approaches that exist in the literature towards the resolution of the paradox. ÖzetBu yüksek lisans tezinde, ateşten set paradoksu ve onun çözümüne yönelik çeşitli yaklaşımları anlatma çabası içinde bulunuldu. Egri uzay-zamanlarda kuantum alanlar kuramındaki, Hawking ışınımı gibi, bazı temel kavramlar üzerine olan bir giriş kısmından sonra ateşten set paradoksu anlatılıyor. Paradoks ayrı ayrı dogru oldugu düşünülen ya da sanılan ilkelerin hep beraberce uygulanması sonucunda doguyor: 1) kara deliklerin kuantum mekanigi ile uyumlu biçimde buharlaşmaları, 2) egri uzay-zamanlarda kuantum alanlar teorisinin geçerliligi, 3) kara deliklerin kuantum hallerini saymak için bir ölçü, 4) Einstein'ın eşdegerlilik ilkesi. Sonrasında paradoksun çözümüne yönelik literatürde yer alan çeşitli yaklaşımlara yer veriliyor. vii

Emergent Diffeomorphism Invariance in Toy Models

“…With a motivation to resolve the black hole information paradox [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] in semiclassical gravity, it has been proposed that the black hole interior does not exist; the black hole horizon represents a physical boundary called firewall. [27,35,36] The problem with the firewall is to reconcile it with standard classical general relativity, which predicts that the black hole interior exists, and that the horizon is not a physical boundary. But such a standard view of classical general relativity is a consequence of the four-dimensional diffeomorphism invariance.…”

“…The three conceptual problems that stand out are the problem of time in quantum gravity, [9][10][11][12] the cosmological constant problem, [13][14][15][16][17] and the black hole information paradox. [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] One possibility that potentially could help to resolve these conceptual problems is the idea that general relativity and its diffeomorphism invariance is emergent, rather than fundamental, while the underlying more fundamental theory rests on entirely different principles. This idea can be realized in condensedmatter inspired theories such as induced gravity, [33] as well as in string theory.…”

On the Origin of Black Hole Paradoxes

“…In order to have a self contained paper, we review the paradox briefly here (more details can be found in the original paper [12] or reviews e.g. in [13][14][15][16]). The highlighted assumptions in the firewall paradox are as follows.…”

Analog Schwarzschild black hole from a nonisentropic fluid

“…Since then a lot of research on analog gravity has been done (see e.g. [3,4] for reviews) but analog black holes do not seem to have shed much light on one of the most difficult problems with Hawking radiation -the black hole information paradox [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13].…”