Do Black Holes Destroy Information?

1992/09/16 by John Preskill, Preskill, John · 84 citations
Medicine · Physics and Astronomy · #Artificial intelligence #Astronomy #Biofield Effects and Biophysics #Black hole information paradox #Computer science #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Data science #Epistemology #Hawking #Hawking radiation #Horizon #Information loss #Micro black hole #Philosophy #Physics #Quantum Mechanics and Applications #Theoretical physics #gr-qc #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9209058

published in arXiv (Cornell University), 22-39 (Cornell University) · 18 pages, harvmac, CALT-68-1819

arxiv created 1992/09/16 · openalex publication_date 1992/09/16 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

I review the information loss paradox that was first formulated by Hawking, and discuss possible ways of resolving it. All proposed solutions have serious drawbacks. I conclude that the information loss paradox may well presage a revolution in fundamental physics. (To appear in the proceedings of the International Symposium on Black Holes, Membranes, Wormholes, and Superstrings.)

Cited by

• Unveiling Primordial Black Hole Relics Through Induced Gravitational Waves
• Two-point correlators in de Sitter-prepared states with bra-ket wormholes
• The Minimal Modal Interpretation of Quantum Theory
• Probing regular black holes with sub-Planckian curvature through periodic orbits and their gravitational wave radiation
• Predictability in Quantum Gravity and Black Hole Evaporation
• The Firewall Paradox
• Higher-Curvature Gravity, Black Holes and Holography
• Self-Completeness of Einstein Gravity
• On a finite universe with no beginning or end
• Black Holes in String Theory
• Wigner's friend's black hole adventure: an argument for complementarity?
• Lorentz Invariance of Entanglement
• Distributed Compression and Squashed Entanglement
• HBAR entropy of Infalling Atoms into a GUP-corrected Schwarzschild Black Hole and equivalence principle
• The black hole information paradox
• Black Hole Information
• The old problem of the cosmological constant solved?
• A correspondence between standard model fermions and degrees of freedom of polycrystalline materials
• Black Holes and Quantum Predictability
• String Theory, Black Holes and Klein's Lemma
• Hawking radiation as quantum tunneling from a noncommutative Schwarzschild black hole
• Information Is Not Physical: Possibility Spaces, Erasure, and the Structure of Unrealized Alternatives
• Quantum Correlations in Space-Time: Foundations and Applications
• Is there a connection between “dark” and “light” physics?
• Quantum mechanics, common sense, and the black hole information paradox
• On Black Hole Remnants
• Possible observational windows for quantum effects from black holes
• The Geometry of Black Hole Singularities
• Quantum gravity and recovery of information in black hole evaporation
• Schrödinger evolution of two-dimensional black holes
• The lifetime of white hole remnants is M⁵

Related

• Black Hole Information Loss: Some Food for Thoughts
• The Information Paradox for Black Holes
• Black Holes, Information Loss and the Measurement Problem
• (Information) Paradox Lost
• Debunking the black hole information paradox