Remnants, Fuzzballs or Wormholes?

Abstract

The black hole information paradox has caused enormous confusion over four decades. But in recent years, the theorem of quantum strong-subaddditivity has sorted out the possible resolutions into three sharp categories: (A) No new physics at $r\gg l_p$; this necessarily implies remnants/information loss. A realization of remnants is given by a baby Universe attached near $r\sim 0$. (B) Violation of the `no-hair' theorem by nontrivial effects at the horizon $r\sim M$. This possibility is realized by fuzzballs in string theory, and gives unitary evaporation. (C) Having the vacuum at the horizon, but requiring that Hawking quanta at $r\sim M^3$ be somehow identified with degrees of freedom inside the black hole. A model for this `extreme nonlocality' is realized by conjecturing that wormholes connect the radiation quanta to the hole.

7 pages, 4 figures (Essay awarded an honorable mention in the Gravity Research Foundation essay competition 2014)