Black Hole Metamorphosis and Stabilization by Memory Burden

TL;DR

This paper explores how memory burden affects quantum systems and black holes, showing that black holes may undergo a metamorphosis, deviating from Hawking evaporation, potentially leading to long-lived remnants or new decay pathways.

Contribution

It introduces a model demonstrating how memory burden can be overcome by rewriting quantum information, predicting black hole metamorphosis and alternative decay scenarios.

Findings

Memory burden suppresses decay in quantum systems.

Black holes may undergo a metamorphosis after losing half their mass.

Possible long-lived black hole remnants or new decay channels are proposed.

Abstract

Systems of enhanced memory capacity are subjected to a universal effect of memory burden, which suppresses their decay. In this paper, we study a prototype model to show that memory burden can be overcome by rewriting stored quantum information from one set of degrees of freedom to another one. However, due to a suppressed rate of rewriting, the evolution becomes extremely slow compared to the initial stage. Applied to black holes, this predicts a metamorphosis, including a drastic deviation from Hawking evaporation, at the latest after losing half of the mass. This raises a tantalizing question about the fate of a black hole. As two likely options, it can either become extremely long lived or decay via a new classical instability into gravitational lumps. The first option would open up a new window for small primordial black holes as viable dark matter candidates.