Black holes and large N species solution to the hierarchy problem

We provide the perturbative and non‐perturbative arguments showing that theories with large number of species of the quantum fields, imply an inevitable hierarchy between the masses of the species and the Planck scale, shedding a different light on the hierarchy problem. In particular, using the black hole physics, we prove that any consistent theory that includes N Z₂‐conserved species of the quantum fields of mass Λ, must have a value of the Planck mass, which in large N limit is given by M_P² \gsim N Λ². An useful byproduct of this proof is that any exactly conserved quantum charge, not associated with a long‐range classical field, must be defined maximum modulo N, with N \gsim (M_P/m)², where m is the mass of the unit charge. For example, a continuous global U(1) ‘baryon number’ symmetry, must be explicitly broken by gravity, at least down to a Z_N subgroup, with N \lsim (M_P/m_b)², where m_b is the baryon mass. The same constraint applies to any discrete gauge symmetry, as well as to other quantum‐mechanically‐detectable black hole charges that are associated with the massive quantum hair of the black hole. We show that the gravitationally‐coupled N‐species sector that solves the gauge hirearchy problem, should be probed by LHC.     

Black holes and beyond

The black hole information paradox forces us into a strange situation: we must find a way to break the semiclassical approximation in a domain where no quantum gravity effects would normally be expected. Traditional quantizations of gravity do not exhibit any such breakdown, and this forces us into a difficult corner: either we must give up quantum mechanics or we must accept the existence of troublesome ‘remnants’. In string theory, however, the fundamental quanta are extended objects, and it turns out that the bound states of such objects acquire a size that grows with the number of quanta in the bound state. The interior of the black hole gets completely altered to a ‘fuzzball’ structure, and information is able to escape in radiation from the hole. The semiclassical approximation can break at macroscopic scales due to the large entropy of the hole: the measure in the path integral competes with the classical action, instead of giving a subleading correction. Putting this picture of black hole microstates together with ideas about entangled states leads to a natural set of conjectures on many long-standing questions in gravity: the significance of Rindler and de Sitter entropies, the notion of black hole complementarity, and the fate of an observer falling into a black hole.     

Universality of black hole quantum computing

By analyzing the key properties of black holes from the point of view of quantum information, we derive a model‐independent picture of black hole quantum computing. It has been noticed that this picture exhibits striking similarities with quantum critical condensates, allowing the use of a common language to describe quantum computing in both systems. We analyze such quantum computing by allowing coupling to external modes, under the condition that the external influence must be soft‐enough in order not to offset the basic properties of the system. We derive model‐independent bounds on some crucial time‐scales, such as the times of gate operation, decoherence, maximal entanglement and total scrambling. We show that for black hole type quantum computers all these time‐scales are of the order of the black hole half‐life time. Furthermore, we construct explicitly a set of Hamiltonians that generates a universal set of quantum gates for the black hole type computer. We find that the gates work at maximal energy efficiency. Furthermore, we establish a fundamental bound on the complexity of quantum circuits encoded on these systems, and characterize the unitary operations that are implementable. It becomes apparent that the computational power is very limited due to the fact that the black hole life‐time is of the same order of the gate operation time. As a consequence, it is impossible to retrieve its information, within the life‐time of a black hole, by externally coupling to the black hole qubits. However, we show that, in principle, coupling to some of the internal degrees of freedom allows acquiring knowledge about the micro‐state. Still, due to the trivial complexity of operations that can be performed, there is no time advantage over the collection of Hawking radiation and subsequent decoding.     

Essay: The Quantum Gravitational Black Hole Is Neither Black Nor White

Understanding the end state of black hole evaporation, the microscopic origin of black hole entropy, the information loss paradox, and the nature of the singularity arising in gravitational collapse - these are outstanding challenges for any candidate quantum theory of gravity. Recently, a midisuperspace model of quantum gravitational collapse has been solved using a lattice regularization scheme. It is shown that the mass of an eternal black hole follows the Bekenstein spectrum, and a related argument provides a fairly accurate estimate of the entropy. The solution also describes a quantized mass-energy distribution around a central black hole, which in the WKB approximation, is precisely Hawking radiation. The leading quantum gravitational correction makes the spectrum non-thermal, thus providing a plausible resolution of the information loss problem.     

Black holes as collapsed polymers

We propose that a large Schwarzschild black hole (BH) is a bound state of highly excited, long, closed strings at the Hagedorn temperature. According to our proposal, the interior of the BH consists, on average, of a uniform distribution of matter with low curvature and large quantum fluctuations about the average. This proposal represents a dramatic departure from any conventional state of matter and from the longstanding expectation that the interior of a BH should look like empty space except for a very small, dense core (the singularity). Standard effective field theory in terms of the metric and other quantum fields is incapable of describing such a state in a meaningful way. However, in polymer physics, such states can be described by a mean field theory in terms of the polymer concentration. We therefore propose that the interior of the BH be described in terms of an effective free‐energy density which is a function of the string concentration or entropy density; this density being a highly non‐perturbative quantity in terms of the metric and other quantum fields. For a macroscopic BH, our proposed free‐energy density contains only linear and quadratic terms, in analogy with that of the theory of collapsed polymers. We calculate the coefficient of the linear term under the accepted assumption that the dominant interaction of the strings at large distances is the gravitational interaction and the coefficient of the quadratic term by relying on explicit string calculations to determine the rate of interaction in terms of the string coupling. Using the effective free energy, we find that the size of the bound state is determined dynamically by the string attractive interactions and derive scaling relations for the entropy, energy and size of the bound state. We show that these agree with the scaling relations of the BH; in particular, with the area law for the BH entropy. The fact that the entropy is not extensive is a result of having strong correlations in the interior state, and the specific form of the entropy‐area law originates from the inverse scaling of the effective temperature with the bound‐state radius. We also find that the energy density of the bound state is equal to its pressure.     

Information Erasure and the Generalized Second Law of Black Hole Thermodynamics

We consider the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics in the light of quantum information theory, in particular information erasure and Landauer’s principle (namely, that erasure of information produces at least the equivalent amount of entropy). A small quantum system outside a black hole in the Hartle-Hawking state is studied, and the quantum system comes into thermal equilibrium with the radiation surrounding the black hole. For this scenario, we present a simple proof of the generalized second law based on quantum relative entropy. We then analyze the corresponding information erasure process, and confirm our proof of the generalized second law by applying Landauer’s principle.     

Letter: The Gravitational Energy of a Black Hole

An exact energy expression for a physical black hole is derived by considering the escape of a photon from the black hole. The mass of the black hole within its horizon is found to be twice its mass as observed at infinity. This result is important in understanding gravitational waves in black hole collisions.     

动态广义球对称含荷黑洞的量子熵

计算了广义球对称含荷黑洞视界上标量场的量子态数和自由能，得到了黑洞熵与视界面积成 正比的结论，表明黑洞熵就是其视界上的量子态的熵．考虑广义不确定原理对黑洞熵的影响 ，采用二维膜模型，克服了brick-wall模型中的发散困难，计算中无须任何截断，且brick- wall模型中的小质量近似也可以避免．对视界外二维膜上的量子场的熵做了级数展开讨论， 得到了一些值得探讨的结论． 关键词： 广义不确定原理 黑洞熵 视界 截断     

Existence of a semiclassical approximation in loop quantum gravity

We consider a spherically symmetric black hole in the Schwarzschild metric and apply Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization to determine the energy levels. The canonical partition function is then computed and we show that the entropy coincides with the Bekenstein-Hawking formula when the maximal number of states for the black hole is the same as computed in loop quantum gravity, proving in this case the existence of a semiclassical limit and obtaining an independent derivation of the Barbero-Immirzi parameter.     

Entanglement in holographic dark energy models

We study a process of equilibration of holographic dark energy (HDE) with the cosmic horizon around the dark-energy dominated epoch. This process is characterized by a huge amount of information conveyed across the horizon, filling thereby a large gap in entropy between the system on the brink of experiencing a sudden collapse to a black hole and the black hole itself. At the same time, even in the absence of interaction between dark matter and dark energy, such a process marks a strong jump in the entanglement entropy, measuring the quantum-mechanical correlations between the horizon and its interior. Although the effective quantum field theory (QFT) with a peculiar relationship between the UV and IR cutoffs, a framework underlying all HDE models, may formally account for such a huge shift in the number of distinct quantum states, we show that the scope of such a framework becomes tremendously restricted, devoid virtually any application in other cosmological epochs or particle-physics phenomena. The problem of negative entropies for the non-phantom stuff is also discussed.     

Entanglement Entropy of Reissner-Nordström Black Hole and Quantum Isolated Horizon

Based on the work of Ghosh and Pereze, who view the black hole entropy as the logarithm of the number of quantum states on the Quantum Isolated Horizon (QIH)^§ the entropy of Reissner-Nordström black hole is studied. According to the Unruh temperature, the statistical entropy of quantum fields under the background of Reissner-Nordström spacetime is calculated by means of quantum statistics. In the calculations we take the integral from the position of QIH to infinity, so the obtained entropy is the entanglement entropy outside the QIH. In Reissner-Nordström spacetime it is shown that if only the position of QIH is properly chosen the leading term of logarithm of the number of quantum states on the QIH is equal to the leading term of the entanglement entropy outside the black hole horizon, and both are the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. The results reveal the relation between the entanglement entropy of black hole and the logarithm of the number of quantum states.     

Almost certain escape from black holes in final state projection models

Recent models of the black-hole final state suggest that quantum information can escape from a black hole by a process akin to teleportation. These models rely on a controversial process called final-state projection. This Letter discusses the self-consistency of the final-state projection hypothesis and investigates escape from black holes for arbitrary final states and for generic interactions between matter and Hawking radiation. Quantum information escapes with fidelity approximately = (8/3pi)2: only half a bit of quantum information is lost on average, independent of the number of bits that escape from the hole.     

Some general properties of the renormalized stress-energy tensor for static quantum states on (<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis> + 1)-dimensional spherically symmetric black holes

We study the renormalized stress-energy tensor (RSET) for static quantum states on (n + 1)-dimensional, static, spherically symmetric black holes. By solving the conservation equations, we are able to write the stress-energy tensor in terms of a single unknown function of the radial co-ordinate, plus two arbitrary constants. Conditions for the stress-energy tensor to be regular at event horizons (including the extremal and “ultra-extremal” cases) are then derived using generalized Kruskal-like co-ordinates. These results should be useful for future calculations of the RSET for static quantum states on spherically symmetric black hole geometries in any number of space-time dimensions.     

Hiding Information in Theories Beyond Quantum Mechanics,and It’s Application to the Black Hole Information Problem

The black hole information problem provides important clues for trying to piece together a quantum theory of gravity. Discussions on this topic have generally assumed that in a consistent theory of gravity and quantum mechanics, quantum theory is unmodified. In this review, we discuss the black hole information problem in the context of generalisations of quantum theory. In this preliminary exploration, we examine black holes in the setting of generalised probabilistic theories, in which quantum theory and classical probability theory are special cases. We are able to calculate the time it takes information to escape a black hole, assuming that information is preserved. In quantum mechanics, information should escape pure state black holes after half the Hawking photons have been emitted, but we find that this get’s modified in generalisations of quantum mechanics. Likewise the black-hole mirror result of Hayden and Preskill, that information from entangled black holes can escape quickly, also get’s modified. We find that although information exits the black hole as predicted by quantum theory, it is fairly generic that it fails to appear outside the black hole at this point—something impossible in quantum theory due to the no-hiding theorem. The information is neither inside the black hole, nor outside it, but is delocalised.     

Gibbons-Maeda dilaton黑洞的全息熵

依据全息原理,通过计算Gibbons-Maeda dilaton黑洞事件视界上量子场的统计熵,得到了该黑洞的全息熵和Bekenstein-Hawking熵.计算中利用非对易量子场论,克服了普通量子场论中态密度在视界上的发散困难,避免了黑洞熵热气体方法中紫外截断的引入.用留数定理克服了计算中的积分困难,所得的结果定量成立.研究表明,黑洞熵可以视为其视界上量子场的熵;通过计算视界上量子态的统计熵可以得到黑洞熵,计算中可以且应该避免视界外量子态的影响. 关键词： 黑洞熵 全息原理 事件视界 非对易量子场论     

Branes wrapping black holes

We examine the dynamics of extended branes, carrying lower-dimensional brane charges, wrapping black holes and black hole microstates in M and type II string theory. We show that they have a universal dispersion relation typical of threshold bound states with a total energy equal to the sum of the contributions from the charges. In near-horizon geometries of black holes, these are BPS states, and the dispersion relation follows from supersymmetry as well as properties of the conformal algebra. However they break all supersymmetries of the full asymptotic geometries of black holes and microstates. We comment on a recent proposal which uses these states to explain black hole entropy.     

Virtual Black Holes and Space–Time Structure

In the standard formalism of quantum gravity, black holes appear to form statistical distributions of quantum states. Now, however, we can present a theory that yields pure quantum states. It shows how particles entering a black hole can generate firewalls, which however can be removed, replacing them by the ‘footprints’ they produce in the out-going particles. This procedure can preserve the quantum information stored inside and around the black hole. We then focus on a subtle but unavoidable modification of the topology of the Schwarzschild metric: antipodal identification of points on the horizon. If it is true that vacuum fluctuations include virtual black holes, then the structure of space-time is radically different from what is usually thought.