Information Retention by Stringy Black Holes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how stringy black holes retain information through an infinite-dimensional $W_$ symmetry that preserves horizon area and entropy, revealing a mechanism for information transfer via string interactions.

Contribution

It introduces the role of $W_$ symmetry in information retention in stringy black holes, extending previous models to four dimensions and linking symmetry to information transfer.

Findings

$W_$ symmetry preserves black hole entropy.

String interactions include $W_$ generators, enabling information transfer.

Black hole information retention is connected to conformal world-sheet operators.

Abstract

Building upon our previous work on two-dimensional stringy black holes and its extension to spherically-symmetric four-dimensional stringy black holes, we show how the latter retain information. A key r\^ole is played by an infinite-dimensional $W_\infty$ symmetry that preserves the area of an isolated black-hole horizon and hence its entropy. The exactly-marginal conformal world-sheet operator representing a massless stringy particle interacting with the black hole necessarily includes a contribution from $W_\infty$ generators in its vertex function. This admixture manifests the transfer of information between the string black hole and external particles. We discuss different manifestations of $W_\infty$ symmetry in black-hole physics and the connections between them.