The curious case of the double-slit experiment and a black hole

Abstract

This experiment was conceived of as a method of transmitting information from inside a black hole to the outside. As it turns out, it doesn't work in the form described (and possibly not in any form), but the way in which Nature prevents quantum-mechanical effects from transmitting usable information using quantum correlations is illuminating. In the process, one can learn some quantum theory, as well as quantum optics. The proposed scheme uses a double-slit experiment, in the manner of the Delayed Choice set up (see Kim et. al.), where the region where the interference takes place (between "signal" photons) is spatially separated from the region where the Delayed Choice (with "idler" photons) is made. Indeed, this Double-Delayed Choice, which is this thought experiment, has one of the idler photons slip inside the event horizon and serves as the method to attempt to communicate from the inside to the outside.