What the information paradox is {\it not}

TL;DR

This paper clarifies the black hole information paradox, critiques existing resolutions for missing key steps, and advocates for the fuzzball approach in string theory as a resolution, emphasizing the importance of quantum gravity's vast phase space.

Contribution

It provides a precise formulation of the paradox, analyzes why previous proposals fail, and advocates for the fuzzball resolution within string theory.

Findings

Existing proposals ignore key steps of the paradox

Fuzzball construction offers a consistent resolution in string theory

Quantum gravity's large phase space is crucial for resolving the paradox

Abstract

There still exist many confusions about the black hole information paradox and its resolution. We first give a precise formulation of the paradox, in four steps A-D. Then we examine several proposals for resolving the paradox. We note that in each case one of these four steps has been ignored, so that the proposal does not really target the essence of the paradox. Finally, we give a brief summary of the fuzzball construction and argue that it resolves the paradox in string theory. This resolution contains a deep lesson -- the phase space of quantum gravity is so large that the measure in the path integral can compete with the classical action for macroscopic objects undergoing gravitational collapse.