2005/07/31 by S. W. Hawking · 459 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) #Combinatorics #Computer science #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Euclidean geometry #Geometry #Infinity #Mathematical analysis #Mathematics #Network topology #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #Path (computing) #Path integral formulation #Physics #Quantum #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Theoretical physics #Topology (electrical circuits) #Unitary state #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.72.084013
published in Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields 72(8) (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2005/09/15 · openalex publication_date 2005/10/18 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The question of whether information is lost in black holes is investigated using Euclidean path integrals. The formation and evaporation of black holes is regarded as a scattering problem with all measurements being made at infinity. This seems to be well formulated only in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. The path integral over metrics with trivial topology is unitary and information preserving. On the other hand, the path integral over metrics with nontrivial topologies leads to correlation functions that decay to zero. Thus at late times only the unitary information preserving path integrals over trivial topologies will contribute. Elementary quantum gravity interactions do not lose information or quantum coherence.