Black hole information, unitarity, and nonlocality

Abstract

The black hole information paradox apparently indicates the need for a fundamentally new ingredient in physics. The leading contender is nonlocality. Possible mechanisms for the nonlocality needed to restore unitarity to black hole evolution are investigated. Suggestions that such dynamics arises from ultra-planckian modes in Hawking's derivation are investigated and found not to be relevant, in a picture using smooth slices spanning the exterior and interior of the horizon. However, no simultaneous description of modes that have fallen into the black hole and outgoing Hawking modes can be given without appearance of a large kinematic invariant, or other dependence on ultra-planckian physics; a reliable argument for information loss thus has not been constructed. This suggests that strong gravitational dynamics is important. Such dynamics has been argued to be fundamentally nonlocal in extreme situations, such as those required to investigate the fate of information.