Black Holes as Critical Point of Quantum Phase Transition

TL;DR

This paper proposes that black holes can be modeled as graviton Bose-Einstein condensates at a quantum critical point, revealing a deep connection with condensed matter systems and offering new insights into holography and black hole information.

Contribution

It introduces a novel quantum many-body perspective of black holes as critical condensates, linking holography to condensed matter physics.

Findings

Black holes modeled as graviton Bose-Einstein condensates at criticality

Degenerate Bogoliubov modes encode black hole entropy and information

Potential for simulating black hole physics in laboratory systems

Abstract

We reformulate the quantum black hole portrait in the language of modern condensed matter physics. We show that black holes can be understood as a graviton Bose-Einstein condensate at the critical point of a quantum phase transition, identical to what has been observed in systems of cold atoms. The Bogoliubov modes that become degenerate and nearly gapless at this point are the holographic quantum degrees of freedom responsible for the black hole entropy and the information storage. They have no (semi)classical counterparts and become inaccessible in this limit. These findings indicate a deep connection between the seemingly remote systems and suggest a new quantum foundation of holography. They also open an intriguing possibility of simulating black hole information processing in table-top labs.