2019/01/02 by Ro Jefferson, Jefferson, Ro
Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Popular Physics (physics.pop-ph) #hep-th #physics.pop-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1901.01149
Essay written for the Black Hole Initiative's 2018 paper competition
arxiv created 2019/01/02 · openalex publication_date 2019/01/02 · arxiv updated 2019/01/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The black hole information paradox is a contradiction between fundamental principles which has puzzled physicists for over forty years. The crux of the problem lies in an assumption about the structure of entanglement across the event horizon, namely, that the Hilbert space factorizes. While valid in quantum mechanics, this fails drastically in quantum field theory, and hence a deeper understanding of entanglement is required if further progress is to be made. Recently, ideas from algebraic quantum field theory have provided new insight into this issue, and show promise for elucidating the connection between entropy and horizons that underlies black hole thermodynamics.