2007/05/25 by Samir D. Mathur · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1142/s0218271808012309
published as Int.J.Mod.Phys.D17:583-589,2008 · 8 pages, 5 figures (this essay received an honorable mention in the 2007 essay competition of the Gravity Research Foundation)
arxiv created 2007/05/25 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
String theory tells us that quantum gravity has a dual description as a field theory (without gravity). We use the field theory dual to ask what happens to an object as it falls into the simplest black hole: the two-charge extremal hole. In the field theory description the wave function of a particle is spread over a large number of "loops," and the particle has a well-defined position in space only if it has the same "position" on each loop. For the infalling particle we find one definition of "same position" on each loop, but there is a different definition for outgoing particles and no canonical definition in general in the horizon region. Thus the meaning of "position" becomes ill-defined inside the horizon.