Gedanken experiments involving black holes

1993/08/20 by Leonard Susskind, L. Susskind, L. Thorlacius +1 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Black hole (networking) #Black hole complementarity #Classical mechanics #Complementarity (molecular biology) #Computer science #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Event horizon #Extremal black hole #Fuzzball #Hawking #Hawking radiation #Horizon #Micro black hole #Naked singularity #Physics #Planck #Planck scale #Quantum #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Quantum gravity #Quantum mechanics #Spacetime #Theoretical physics #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.49.966

published as Phys.Rev.D49:966-974,1994 · 22 pages (including 7 figures), SU-ITP-93-19

arxiv created 1993/08/20 · openalex publication_date 1994/01/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Analysis of several gedanken experiments indicates that black hole complementarity cannot be ruled out on the basis of known physical principles. Experiments designed by outside observers to disprove the existence of a quantum-mechanical stretched horizon require knowledge of Planck-scale effects for their analysis. Observers who fall through the event horizon after sampling the Hawking radiation cannot discover duplicate information inside the black hole before hitting the singularity. Experiments by outside observers to detect baryon number violation will yield significant effects well outside the stretched horizon.

Citations

• String theory and the principle of black hole complementarity
• Average entropy of a subsystem
• Particle creation by black holes
• Generalized second law of thermodynamics in black-hole physics
• The black hole interpretation of string theory
• The Stretched Horizon and Black Hole Complementarity

Cited by

• Black Hole Information From Non-vacuum Localised Quantum States
• String theory and the principle of black hole complementarity
• Strings, black holes, and Lorentz contraction
• Semiclassical approach for the evaporating black hole revisited
• The energy spectrum of the membrane effective model for quantum black holes