HEP-QIS Seminar

Abstract: A simple qubit model of black hole evaporation is studied. Within this model, we formulate versions of the firewall paradoxes and resolve them. We find that, even though the partner mode of the outgoing Hawking modes can be reconstructed from the early radiation, these modes are protected against seemingly dangerous operations on the radiation, e.g., low-complexity unitary perturbations available to the external observer and complete destructive measurement of every outgoing Hawking quanta. We discuss a relation between mirror operator construction of the interior mode and quantum error correction, from which we draw parallels with the resolution of the firewall paradoxes in AdS/CFT. This model makes two nontrivial assumptions. (i) The black hole and the observer evolve unitarily. (ii) For simple measurements, the radiation is indistinguishable from a random state with an exponentially small error in the entropy of the remaining black hole. (Joint work with John Preskill)